doctrine2/manual/docs/en/transactions/savepoints.txt

Doctrine supports transaction savepoints. This means you can set named transactions and have them nested.

The {{Doctrine_Transaction::beginTransaction($savepoint)}} sets a named transaction savepoint with a name of {{$savepoint}}. If the current transaction has a savepoint with the same name, the old savepoint is deleted and a new one is set.

<code type="php">
try {
    $conn->beginTransaction();
    // do some operations here

    // creates a new savepoint called mysavepoint
    $conn->beginTransaction('mysavepoint');
    try {
        // do some operations here

        $conn->commit('mysavepoint');
    } catch(Exception $e) {
        $conn->rollback('mysavepoint');
    }
    $conn->commit();
} catch(Exception $e) {
    $conn->rollback();
}
</code>

The {{Doctrine_Transaction::rollback($savepoint)}} rolls back a transaction to the named savepoint. Modifications that the current transaction made to rows after the savepoint was set are undone in the rollback.

NOTE: Mysql, for example, does not release the row locks that were stored in memory after the savepoint.

Savepoints that were set at a later time than the named savepoint are deleted.

The {{Doctrine_Transaction::commit($savepoint)}} removes the named savepoint from the set of savepoints of the current transaction. 

All savepoints of the current transaction are deleted if you execute a commit or if a rollback is being called without savepoint name parameter.

<code type="php">
try {
    $conn->beginTransaction();
    // do some operations here

    // creates a new savepoint called mysavepoint
    $conn->beginTransaction('mysavepoint');
    
    // do some operations here

    $conn->commit();   // deletes all savepoints
} catch(Exception $e) {
    $conn->rollback(); // deletes all savepoints
}
</code>