ROLLBACK_PREPARED(7pg15)

Hiii bestie! 💖 You're reading ROLLBACK PREPARED(7), straight outta the PostgreSQL 15.19 Documentation, and this page is lowkey iconic: it's the command that cancels a transaction that was earlier prepared for two-phase commit. Main character energy? In a transaction log? Yes. 🫶

💅 NAME 💅

ROLLBACK_PREPARED — the page for ROLLBACK PREPARED, and its whole deal is: cancel a transaction that was earlier prepared for two-phase commit. It's the undo button for the two-phase commit girlies, and yes, it ate. ✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

ROLLBACK PREPARED transaction_id

That's the whole vibe: command, then the transaction_id you want gone.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

ROLLBACK PREPARED rolls back a transaction that is in prepared state. That's it, that's the tweet — except it's a whole PostgreSQL statement, so bestie, respect the tiny syntax. 💅

🎀 PARAMETERS 🎀

• transaction_id — the transaction identifier of the transaction that is to be rolled back. Ngl, it's literally the handle for the transaction you're sending back to the group chat as "not it." 😭

🔥 NOTES 🔥

• To roll back a prepared transaction, you must be either the same user that executed the transaction originally, or a superuser. No random bestie access!
• But you do not have to be in the same session that executed the transaction. Bestie can be in a whole different session and still handle it. 🫶
• All currently available prepared transactions are listed in the pg_prepared_xacts system view. That's your guest list, iykyk. 👑

⚠️ This command cannot be executed inside a transaction block. The prepared transaction is rolled back immediately. "Cannot" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here — do not try to tuck it inside a transaction block, fr fr. 💀

⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

Roll back the transaction identified by the transaction identifier foobar — yes, foobar, the most iconic test string of all time:

ROLLBACK PREPARED 'foobar';

🌈 COMPATIBILITY 🌈

ROLLBACK PREPARED is a PostgreSQL extension. It is intended for use by external transaction management systems — some of those are covered by standards (such as X/Open XA), but the SQL side of those systems is not standardized. So like, standards-adjacent, not standards-committed. 🙈

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

• PREPARE TRANSACTION (PREPARE_TRANSACTION(7))
• COMMIT PREPARED (COMMIT_PREPARED(7))

xoxo, PostgreSQL 15.19 • 2026 • ROLLBACK PREPARED(7) 💖