>> I realize that I should fix my applications so that deadlocks don't
>> occur at all. Unfortunately, the occurence of deadlocks is so extremely
>> rare that I really have no hope of finding the cause. So instead I am
>> looking for a way to fix the effects. I know that a Backup/Restore
>> cycle removes my deadlocks. But - is there an alternative way that would not
>> require an exclusive access to the database?
>
> deadlocks are not a phenomenon which is corrected only via B/R cycle. You
> only have to commit the transaction.
> If you read up a little on transaction isolation you may quickly twig to
> what your issue is. You could change your isolation e.g. ...
> deadlocks are your friend not your enemy - learn to detect them and use
> them, don't avoid them

To put things into perspective: Among all of my installations I see one
or perhaps two occurences of deadlock per year. The bug is hidden in
some 200 thousand lines of code that I would need to go through. I agree
that it would be great to find and fix the uncommitted transaction, but
the costs of doing so are too high.

Pepak