apoc.refactor.cloneNodes() clones survive transaction rollback

[aubsartre]

Description

When a clone node is made using apoc.refactor.cloneNodes() inside a transaction which is rolled back (manually or automatically), the clone survives the rollback, while other changes made inside the transaction do not. The effect is to break ACID compliance.

Expected Behavior

Clone nodes should vanish with the rest of the transaction changes on rollback.

Actual Behavior

Clone nodes survive as orphans exactly as made out of cloneNodes() (ie without the skipProperties), but without other (subsequent) changes made to them during the transaction.

How to Reproduce the Problem

This Cypher illustrates the fault:

CREATE (original:demo {uid: "original"})
WITH original
CALL apoc.refactor.cloneNodes([original], false, ["uid"])
YIELD input, output AS clone, error                                   // this clone node survives(!)
SET clone.uid = "clone"                                               // however this change doesn't survive
RETURN 1/0                                                            // rollback makes orphans

Steps

1. Issue the above Cypher query in an empty DB
2. Check that the clone node survived: MATCH (n) RETURN n

Specifications

Versions Tested

Both versions I have ready access to have the fault.

Enterprise Edition (online sandbox)

• OS: ? (Sandbox)
• Neo4j: 5.16.0 EE
• Neo4j-Apoc: 5.17.0

Community Edition

• OS: Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS
• Neo4j: 5.10.0 CE
• Neo4j-Apoc: 5.10.0

[gem-neo4j]

Hi! thanks for reporting this, we will take a look :)

[gem-neo4j]

The fix will be available in 5.18 and 4.4.0.26 :)

[aubsartre]

Thanks for the fix!