1. A method for managing obsolescence of replicas of data objects, the objects being utilized in multiple nodes of a distributed processing system in which at least one node operates as an object source location having access to a source database containing source data objects and at least one other node operates as an object replica location having means for storing replicas of requested objects received from a source location, each source data object being alterable whereby replicas of altered objects stored at replica locations may become obsolete, comprising the steps of: responsive to a request from a first replica location to ascertain obsolescence of data objects, extracting at the source location identifiers of a set of obsolete objects; communicating said identifiers, if any, as an atomic demand/response transaction to said first replica location; rendering inaccessible at said first replica location any replicas corresponding to those identifiers received from the source location; and removing from the source location those identifiers communicated to said first replica location.