"Kevin Grittner" <Kevin(dot)Grittner(at)wicourts(dot)gov> writes:
> Thanks for the clarification. That does not work for SERIALIZABLE
> at all, because other tables or rows referenced in that first
> statement would be using the original snapshot. Indeed, the
> behavior under READ COMMITTED could be astonishing in certain
> circumstances as it breaks atomicity:
Yup. That is stated fairly clearly already in the description of
READ COMMITTED mode, no?
http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/transaction-iso.html#XACT-READ-COMMITTED
regards, tom lane