timeout_period

Is the number of milliseconds that will pass before Microsoft SQL Server returns a locking error. A value of -1 (default) indicates no time-out period (that is, wait forever).

When a wait for a lock exceeds the time-out value, an error is returned. A value of 0 means to not wait at all and return a message as soon as a lock is encountered.

At the beginning of a connection, this setting has a value of -1. After it is changed, the new setting stays in effect for the remainder of the connection.

The setting of SET LOCK_TIMEOUT is set at execute or run time and not at parse time.

The READPAST locking hint provides an alternative to this SET option.

CREATE DATABASE, ALTER DATABASE, and DROP DATABASE statements do not honor the SET LOCK_TIMEOUT setting.

Requires membership in the public role.

The following example sets the lock time-out period to 1800 milliseconds.

SET LOCK_TIMEOUT 1800
GO

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