--- title: All Your GUCs in a Row: deadlock_timeout | daily.dev description: PostgreSQL's `deadlock_timeout` parameter is commonly misunderstood: it doesn't control how long a deadlock is tolerated, but rather how long a process waits... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/all-your-gucs-in-a-row-deadlock-timeout-3g1yv7vql twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: All Your GUCs in a Row: deadlock_timeout | daily.dev og:description: PostgreSQL's `deadlock_timeout` parameter is commonly misunderstood: it doesn't control how long a deadlock is tolerated, but rather how long a process waits... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/all-your-gucs-in-a-row-deadlock-timeout-3g1yv7vql og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/3g1yv7vql.png og:image:alt: All Your GUCs in a Row: deadlock_timeout og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # All Your GUCs in a Row: deadlock_timeout **[Planet PostgreSQL](https://daily.dev/sources/planet-postgresql)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary PostgreSQL's `deadlock_timeout` parameter is commonly misunderstood: it doesn't control how long a deadlock is tolerated, but rather how long a process waits on a lock before PostgreSQL runs its deadlock detection algorithm. Detection is deferred because building and searching a wait-for-graph is expensive, and most lock waits resolve before the timer fires. When detection does run, it distinguishes between hard edges (actual lock holds) and soft edges (queue position), and can sometimes resolve cycles by reordering the wait queue rather than aborting a transaction. The default of 1s is appropriate for most workloads. A practical diagnostic trick: pair a lowered `deadlock_timeout` (e.g., 100ms) with `log_lock_waits = on` to surface lock contention that never escalates to a full deadlock error. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. 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