ABORT(7)

📦 version 17.11, in opensuse-leap 16.0

💅 ABORT(7) 💅

okay so welcome to the ABORT(7) page from the PostgreSQL 17.11 Documentation, bestie 💖. This is the one about aborting the current transaction, and yes, it's giving “nope, we're undoing that” energy.

🌸 NAME 🌸

ABORT — abort the current transaction. That's it. That's the name. Slay.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ABORT [ WORK | TRANSACTION ] [ AND [ NO ] CHAIN ]

Yes bestie, copy it exactly like that. The [ NO ] is literally in the synopsis, iykyk 👑

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

ABORT rolls back the current transaction and causes all the updates made by the transaction to be discarded. So all those changes? Gone. Discarded. Not invited to the afterparty 😭.

This command is identical in behavior to the standard SQL command ROLLBACK, and it's present only for historical reasons. So it's basically the historical bestie of ROLLBACK — same behavior, different name, iconic really.

🎀 PARAMETERS 🎀

  • WORK — optional key word, and it has no effect. Like, none. Zero. It's just there.
  • TRANSACTION — another optional key word, also with no effect. Same vibe, bestie.
  • AND CHAIN — if AND CHAIN is specified, a new transaction is immediately started with the same transaction characteristics (see SET TRANSACTION) as the just finished one. Otherwise, no new transaction is started. Periodt.
also the synopsis has [ NO ] sitting inside [ AND [ NO ] CHAIN ]; the parameters section only explains AND CHAIN, so I'm not inventing extra lore for NO, bestie 💅

🔥 NOTES 🔥

  • Use COMMIT to successfully terminate a transaction. That's the “we're keeping this” button.
  • Issuing ABORT outside of a transaction block emits a warning and otherwise has no effect. So if you're not in a transaction block, it's just gonna warn and vibe, with no actual rollback.

💖 EXAMPLES 💖

To abort all changes:

ABORT;

That's the whole example. Short, sweet, devastating for those updates 💀

👑 COMPATIBILITY 👑

This command is a PostgreSQL extension present for historical reasons. ROLLBACK is the equivalent standard SQL command. So if you're being all standard-SQL about it, ROLLBACK is your girl.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

mwah 💋 — that's the PostgreSQL 17.11 page from 2026, for ABORT(7). Now go forth and roll back responsibly, bestie 🫶✨

📦 where this page comes from