setRollbackOnly

setRollbackOnly is a method in the Java Transaction API (JTA) used to mark the current global transaction for rollback. It is available on transactional control interfaces such as javax.transaction.UserTransaction and javax.transaction.Transaction. Calling this method signals the transaction manager that the transaction must not be committed, typically in response to an error condition or business rule violation detected during transactional work.

Once setRollbackOnly has been invoked, any subsequent attempt to commit the transaction will result in a rollback rather than a commit. The actual rollback occurs when the transaction completes, either at commit time when the manager detects the flag or through an explicit rollback. If a caller attempts to commit after marking rollback-only, a RollbackException (or a related outcome) may be thrown, and the final outcome is that the transaction is rolled back.

setRollbackOnly does not immediately revert changes; it marks the transaction as rollback-only and defers the rollback to commit time. It can still be used to perform further work within the transaction before completion, provided the transaction manager allows it.

Usage context: Common in enterprise Java components that participate in global transactions, such as EJBs or CDI beans using JTA, when a method detects a condition that requires aborting without propagating an error to the caller (which may be handled at a higher level).

Notes: Availability and exact behavior may vary by transaction manager and container; attempting to call setRollbackOnly when there is no active transaction will usually throw an IllegalStateException.

See also: UserTransaction, Transaction, RollbackException, Status.