Patent ID: 7966302

Claim:
A data processing system for managing long-lived resource locks comprising: a computer with processor and memory; a plurality of work items disposed in a database of work items in the memory, each of said work items comprising a lock time and a lock flag; a plurality of worker tasks in a work system in the computer, the plurality of worker tasks being enabled to access said work items and to assert locks on said work items; a stale lock detection task in an administration system in the computer, the stale lock detection task being enabled to detect and release stale locks in said work items; and, a lock assertion task in said work system enabled to maintain locks on said work items on behalf of corresponding ones of said worker tasks utilizing said work items; wherein the stale locks are periodically cleared for corresponding work items accessed by the worker tasks; and, wherein the locks are periodically asserted on the work items on behalf of the accessing worker tasks to avoid a clearing of said asserted locks as stale locks.