How do REQUIRED, REQUIRES_NEW, and NESTED transaction propagation differ?

Compares joining an existing transaction, suspending it for an independent transaction, and using a savepoint-backed nested scope.

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REQUIRED joins the current transaction or starts one if none exists, so it is the normal default for one composed unit of work. REQUIRES_NEW suspends the outer transaction and starts an independent physical transaction with its own commit or rollback. NESTED normally uses a savepoint inside one physical transaction, allowing part of the work to roll back to that point when the transaction manager and resource support it.

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Logical and physical transactions, suspension, savepoints, rollback-only state, pool pressure, and valid use cases.

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Overview
Propagation describes what happens when a transactional method is called while a transaction may already exist.
REQUIRED joins the current transaction or starts one if none exists, so it is the normal default for one composed unit of work. REQUIRES_NEW suspends the outer transaction and starts an independent physical transaction with its own commit or rollback. NESTED normally uses a savepoint inside one physical transaction, allowing part of the work to roll back to that point when the transaction manager and resource support it.
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An inner REQUIRED scope can mark the shared transaction rollback-only; if outer code tries to commit, Spring may report an unexpected rollback. REQUIRES_NEW can commit even when the outer transaction later fails, which is useful only when that independent outcome is intentional. It also needs another connection while the outer one remains held, so concurrent use can exhaust a small pool. NESTED is not a portable substitute for a separate transaction and is commonly tied to JDBC savepoint support.

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Calling REQUIRES_NEW a nested savepoint.
Using REQUIRES_NEW without accounting for another connection.
Catching an exception and assuming a shared transaction can still commit.

How do REQUIRED, REQUIRES_NEW, and NESTED transaction propagation differ?

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