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update-pipeline

Implementation details for EF Core SaveChanges and the update pipeline. Use when changing CommandBatchPreparer, UpdateSqlGenerator, ModificationCommand, or related classes.

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dotnet/efcore
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October 8, 2026 at 18:29
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name
update-pipeline
description
Implementation details for EF Core SaveChanges and the update pipeline. Use when changing CommandBatchPreparer, UpdateSqlGenerator, ModificationCommand, or related classes.
user-invocable
false
# Update Pipeline Converts tracked entity changes into database INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE commands during `SaveChanges()`. ## Flow `SaveChanges()` → `DetectChanges()` → `IDatabase.SaveChanges()` → `UpdateAdapter` creates `IUpdateEntry` list → `CommandBatchPreparer.BatchCommands()` → `ModificationCommand` per table row, composed of `ColumnModification` per column → `SharedTableEntryMap` is used to track entries mapped to the same row → Topological sort via Multigraph (FK dependency ordering) → Groups into `ModificationCommandBatch` (respects max batch size) → `UpdateSqlGenerator` generates SQL per batch → `BatchExecutor` executes all batches in a transaction → `StateManager.AcceptAllChanges()` ## Concurrency Concurrency tokens → WHERE conditions on UPDATE/DELETE. `AffectedCountModificationCommandBatch` checks affected rows. Throws `DbUpdateConcurrencyException` on mismatch. ## Shared-Row Value Access Column accessors may need values from a `SharedIdentityEntry` when one CLR entry replaces another mapped to the same row. Select the effective entry before resolving the column's property mapping: entries in a shared-identity pair can have different entity types, so a property from the original type must not be used against the replacement. Regression tests should exercise the resulting command dependency ordering, not just the accessor in isolation. ## Validation - `SaveChanges()` returns expected affected row count - Store-generated values propagate back to entities after INSERT/UPDATE - `DbUpdateConcurrencyException` thrown when expected for stale data
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