• In the SGA, latches are low-level serialisation methods that preserve shared data structures. Latch implementation varies by operating system, particularly in terms of whether and how long a process will wait for a latch.
• A latch is a form of lock that may be obtained and unlocked rapidly. Latches are commonly used to prevent several processes from running the same code at the same time. A cleanup method is associated with each latch, and it will be called if a process dies while it is holding the latch. Latches have a level connected with them that is used to avoid deadlocks. Once a process obtains a latch at a specific level, it cannot acquire a latch at a level equal to or less than that level in the future (unless it acquires it nowait).

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