1 #LyX 1.6.7 created this file. For more info see http://www.lyx.org/
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38 \author "Rusty Russell,,,"
45 TDB2: A Redesigning The Trivial DataBase
49 Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation
56 \begin_layout Abstract
57 The Trivial DataBase on-disk format is 32 bits; with usage cases heading
58 towards the 4G limit, that must change.
59 This required breakage provides an opportunity to revisit TDB's other design
60 decisions and reassess them.
67 \begin_layout Standard
68 The Trivial DataBase was originally written by Andrew Tridgell as a simple
69 key/data pair storage system with the same API as dbm, but allowing multiple
70 readers and writers while being small enough (< 1000 lines of C) to include
72 The simple design created in 1999 has proven surprisingly robust and performant
73 , used in Samba versions 3 and 4 as well as numerous other projects.
74 Its useful life was greatly increased by the (backwards-compatible!) addition
75 of transaction support in 2005.
78 \begin_layout Standard
79 The wider variety and greater demands of TDB-using code has lead to some
80 organic growth of the API, as well as some compromises on the implementation.
81 None of these, by themselves, are seen as show-stoppers, but the cumulative
82 effect is to a loss of elegance over the initial, simple TDB implementation.
83 Here is a table of the approximate number of lines of implementation code
84 and number of API functions at the end of each year:
87 \begin_layout Standard
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117 Lines of C Code Implementation
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435 \begin_layout Plain Layout
449 \begin_layout Standard
450 This review is an attempt to catalog and address all the known issues with
451 TDB and create solutions which address the problems without significantly
452 increasing complexity; all involved are far too aware of the dangers of
453 second system syndrome in rewriting a successful project like this.
456 \begin_layout Section
460 \begin_layout Subsection
461 tdb_open_ex Is Not Expandable
464 \begin_layout Standard
465 The tdb_open() call was expanded to tdb_open_ex(), which added an optional
466 hashing function and an optional logging function argument.
467 Additional arguments to open would require the introduction of a tdb_open_ex2
471 \begin_layout Subsubsection
473 \begin_inset CommandInset label
482 \begin_layout Standard
483 tdb_open() will take a linked-list of attributes:
486 \begin_layout LyX-Code
490 \begin_layout LyX-Code
491 TDB_ATTRIBUTE_LOG = 0,
494 \begin_layout LyX-Code
495 TDB_ATTRIBUTE_HASH = 1
498 \begin_layout LyX-Code
502 \begin_layout LyX-Code
503 struct tdb_attribute_base {
506 \begin_layout LyX-Code
507 enum tdb_attribute attr;
510 \begin_layout LyX-Code
511 union tdb_attribute *next;
514 \begin_layout LyX-Code
518 \begin_layout LyX-Code
519 struct tdb_attribute_log {
522 \begin_layout LyX-Code
523 struct tdb_attribute_base base; /* .attr = TDB_ATTRIBUTE_LOG */
526 \begin_layout LyX-Code
530 \begin_layout LyX-Code
534 \begin_layout LyX-Code
538 \begin_layout LyX-Code
539 struct tdb_attribute_hash {
542 \begin_layout LyX-Code
543 struct tdb_attribute_base base; /* .attr = TDB_ATTRIBUTE_HASH */
546 \begin_layout LyX-Code
547 tdb_hash_func hash_fn;
550 \begin_layout LyX-Code
554 \begin_layout LyX-Code
558 \begin_layout LyX-Code
559 union tdb_attribute {
562 \begin_layout LyX-Code
563 struct tdb_attribute_base base;
566 \begin_layout LyX-Code
567 struct tdb_attribute_log log;
570 \begin_layout LyX-Code
571 struct tdb_attribute_hash hash;
574 \begin_layout LyX-Code
578 \begin_layout Standard
579 This allows future attributes to be added, even if this expands the size
583 \begin_layout Subsubsection
587 \begin_layout Standard
591 \begin_layout Subsection
592 tdb_traverse Makes Impossible Guarantees
595 \begin_layout Standard
596 tdb_traverse (and tdb_firstkey/tdb_nextkey) predate transactions, and it
597 was thought that it was important to guarantee that all records which exist
598 at the start and end of the traversal would be included, and no record
599 would be included twice.
602 \begin_layout Standard
603 This adds complexity (see
604 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
606 reference "Reliable-Traversal-Adds"
610 ) and does not work anyway for records which are altered (in particular,
611 those which are expanded may be effectively deleted and re-added behind
615 \begin_layout Subsubsection
616 \begin_inset CommandInset label
618 name "traverse-Proposed-Solution"
625 \begin_layout Standard
626 Abandon the guarantee.
627 You will see every record if no changes occur during your traversal, otherwise
628 you will see some subset.
629 You can prevent changes by using a transaction or the locking API.
632 \begin_layout Subsubsection
636 \begin_layout Standard
638 Delete-during-traverse will still delete every record, too (assuming no
642 \begin_layout Subsection
643 Nesting of Transactions Is Fraught
646 \begin_layout Standard
647 TDB has alternated between allowing nested transactions and not allowing
649 Various paths in the Samba codebase assume that transactions will nest,
650 and in a sense they can: the operation is only committed to disk when the
651 outer transaction is committed.
652 There are two problems, however:
655 \begin_layout Enumerate
656 Canceling the inner transaction will cause the outer transaction commit
657 to fail, and will not undo any operations since the inner transaction began.
658 This problem is soluble with some additional internal code.
661 \begin_layout Enumerate
662 An inner transaction commit can be cancelled by the outer transaction.
663 This is desirable in the way which Samba's database initialization code
664 uses transactions, but could be a surprise to any users expecting a successful
665 transaction commit to expose changes to others.
668 \begin_layout Standard
669 The current solution is to specify the behavior at tdb_open(), with the
670 default currently that nested transactions are allowed.
671 This flag can also be changed at runtime.
674 \begin_layout Subsubsection
678 \begin_layout Standard
679 Given the usage patterns, it seems that the
680 \begin_inset Quotes eld
684 \begin_inset Quotes erd
687 behavior of disallowing nested transactions should become the default.
688 Additionally, it seems the outer transaction is the only code which knows
689 whether inner transactions should be allowed, so a flag to indicate this
690 could be added to tdb_transaction_start.
691 However, this behavior can be simulated with a wrapper which uses tdb_add_flags
692 () and tdb_remove_flags(), so the API should not be expanded for this relatively
696 \begin_layout Subsubsection
700 \begin_layout Standard
702 \change_deleted 0 1298979572
703 Incomplete; nesting flag is still defined as per tdb1.
704 \change_inserted 0 1298979584
705 Complete; the nesting flag has been removed.
710 \begin_layout Subsection
711 Incorrect Hash Function is Not Detected
714 \begin_layout Standard
715 tdb_open_ex() allows the calling code to specify a different hash function
716 to use, but does not check that all other processes accessing this tdb
717 are using the same hash function.
718 The result is that records are missing from tdb_fetch().
721 \begin_layout Subsubsection
725 \begin_layout Standard
726 The header should contain an example hash result (eg.
727 the hash of 0xdeadbeef), and tdb_open_ex() should check that the given
728 hash function produces the same answer, or fail the tdb_open call.
731 \begin_layout Subsubsection
735 \begin_layout Standard
739 \begin_layout Subsection
740 tdb_set_max_dead/TDB_VOLATILE Expose Implementation
743 \begin_layout Standard
744 In response to scalability issues with the free list (
745 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
747 reference "TDB-Freelist-Is"
751 ) two API workarounds have been incorporated in TDB: tdb_set_max_dead()
752 and the TDB_VOLATILE flag to tdb_open.
753 The latter actually calls the former with an argument of
754 \begin_inset Quotes eld
758 \begin_inset Quotes erd
764 \begin_layout Standard
765 This code allows deleted records to accumulate without putting them in the
767 On delete we iterate through each chain and free them in a batch if there
768 are more than max_dead entries.
769 These are never otherwise recycled except as a side-effect of a tdb_repack.
772 \begin_layout Subsubsection
776 \begin_layout Standard
777 With the scalability problems of the freelist solved, this API can be removed.
778 The TDB_VOLATILE flag may still be useful as a hint that store and delete
779 of records will be at least as common as fetch in order to allow some internal
780 tuning, but initially will become a no-op.
783 \begin_layout Subsubsection
787 \begin_layout Standard
789 \change_deleted 0 1300360559
791 TDB_VOLATILE still defined, but implementation should fail on unknown flags
793 \change_inserted 0 1300360588
795 Unknown flags cause tdb_open() to fail as well, so they can be detected
799 \begin_layout Subsection
800 \begin_inset CommandInset label
802 name "TDB-Files-Cannot"
806 TDB Files Cannot Be Opened Multiple Times In The Same Process
809 \begin_layout Standard
810 No process can open the same TDB twice; we check and disallow it.
811 This is an unfortunate side-effect of fcntl locks, which operate on a per-file
812 rather than per-file-descriptor basis, and do not nest.
813 Thus, closing any file descriptor on a file clears all the locks obtained
814 by this process, even if they were placed using a different file descriptor!
817 \begin_layout Standard
818 Note that even if this were solved, deadlock could occur if operations were
819 nested: this is a more manageable programming error in most cases.
822 \begin_layout Subsubsection
826 \begin_layout Standard
827 We could lobby POSIX to fix the perverse rules, or at least lobby Linux
828 to violate them so that the most common implementation does not have this
830 This would be a generally good idea for other fcntl lock users.
833 \begin_layout Standard
834 Samba uses a wrapper which hands out the same tdb_context to multiple callers
835 if this happens, and does simple reference counting.
836 We should do this inside the tdb library, which already emulates lock nesting
837 internally; it would need to recognize when deadlock occurs within a single
839 This would create a new failure mode for tdb operations (while we currently
840 handle locking failures, they are impossible in normal use and a process
841 encountering them can do little but give up).
844 \begin_layout Standard
845 I do not see benefit in an additional tdb_open flag to indicate whether
846 re-opening is allowed, as though there may be some benefit to adding a
847 call to detect when a tdb_context is shared, to allow other to create such
851 \begin_layout Subsubsection
855 \begin_layout Standard
859 \begin_layout Subsection
860 TDB API Is Not POSIX Thread-safe
863 \begin_layout Standard
864 The TDB API uses an error code which can be queried after an operation to
865 determine what went wrong.
866 This programming model does not work with threads, unless specific additional
867 guarantees are given by the implementation.
868 In addition, even otherwise-independent threads cannot open the same TDB
870 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
872 reference "TDB-Files-Cannot"
879 \begin_layout Subsubsection
883 \begin_layout Standard
884 Reachitecting the API to include a tdb_errcode pointer would be a great
886 \change_inserted 0 1298979557
887 , but fortunately most functions return 0 on success and -1 on error: we
888 can change these to return 0 on success and a negative error code on error,
889 and the API remains similar to previous.
890 The tdb_fetch, tdb_firstkey and tdb_nextkey functions need to take a TDB_DATA
891 pointer and return an error code.
892 It is also simpler to have tdb_nextkey replace its key argument in place,
893 freeing up any old .dptr.
896 \begin_layout Standard
898 \change_deleted 0 1298979438
899 ; we are better to guarantee that the tdb_errcode is per-thread so the current
900 programming model can be maintained.
903 \begin_layout Standard
905 \change_deleted 0 1298979438
906 This requires dynamic per-thread allocations, which is awkward with POSIX
907 threads (pthread_key_create space is limited and we cannot simply allocate
908 a key for every TDB).
913 \begin_layout Standard
914 Internal locking is required to make sure that fcntl locks do not overlap
915 between threads, and also that the global list of tdbs is maintained.
918 \begin_layout Standard
919 The aim is that building tdb with -DTDB_PTHREAD will result in a pthread-safe
920 version of the library, and otherwise no overhead will exist.
921 Alternatively, a hooking mechanism similar to that proposed for
922 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
924 reference "Proposed-Solution-locking-hook"
928 could be used to enable pthread locking at runtime.
931 \begin_layout Subsubsection
935 \begin_layout Standard
937 \change_inserted 0 1298979681
938 ; API has been changed but thread safety has not been implemented.
939 \change_deleted 0 1298979669
945 \begin_layout Subsection
946 *_nonblock Functions And *_mark Functions Expose Implementation
949 \begin_layout Standard
954 \begin_layout Plain Layout
955 Clustered TDB, see http://ctdb.samba.org
960 wishes to operate on TDB in a non-blocking manner.
961 This is currently done as follows:
964 \begin_layout Enumerate
965 Call the _nonblock variant of an API function (eg.
966 tdb_lockall_nonblock).
970 \begin_layout Enumerate
971 Fork a child process, and wait for it to call the normal variant (eg.
975 \begin_layout Enumerate
976 If the child succeeds, call the _mark variant to indicate we already have
981 \begin_layout Enumerate
982 Upon completion, tell the child to release the locks (eg.
986 \begin_layout Enumerate
987 Indicate to tdb that it should consider the locks removed (eg.
991 \begin_layout Standard
992 There are several issues with this approach.
993 Firstly, adding two new variants of each function clutters the API for
994 an obscure use, and so not all functions have three variants.
995 Secondly, it assumes that all paths of the functions ask for the same locks,
996 otherwise the parent process will have to get a lock which the child doesn't
997 have under some circumstances.
998 I don't believe this is currently the case, but it constrains the implementatio
1003 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1004 \begin_inset CommandInset label
1006 name "Proposed-Solution-locking-hook"
1013 \begin_layout Standard
1014 Implement a hook for locking methods, so that the caller can control the
1015 calls to create and remove fcntl locks.
1016 In this scenario, ctdbd would operate as follows:
1019 \begin_layout Enumerate
1020 Call the normal API function, eg tdb_lockall().
1023 \begin_layout Enumerate
1024 When the lock callback comes in, check if the child has the lock.
1025 Initially, this is always false.
1027 Otherwise, try to obtain it in non-blocking mode.
1028 If that fails, return EWOULDBLOCK.
1031 \begin_layout Enumerate
1032 Release locks in the unlock callback as normal.
1035 \begin_layout Enumerate
1036 If tdb_lockall() fails, see if we recorded a lock failure; if so, call the
1037 child to repeat the operation.
1040 \begin_layout Enumerate
1041 The child records what locks it obtains, and returns that information to
1045 \begin_layout Enumerate
1046 When the child has succeeded, goto 1.
1049 \begin_layout Standard
1050 This is flexible enough to handle any potential locking scenario, even when
1051 lock requirements change.
1052 It can be optimized so that the parent does not release locks, just tells
1053 the child which locks it doesn't need to obtain.
1056 \begin_layout Standard
1057 It also keeps the complexity out of the API, and in ctdbd where it is needed.
1060 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1064 \begin_layout Standard
1068 \begin_layout Subsection
1069 tdb_chainlock Functions Expose Implementation
1072 \begin_layout Standard
1073 tdb_chainlock locks some number of records, including the record indicated
1075 This gave atomicity guarantees; no-one can start a transaction, alter,
1076 read or delete that key while the lock is held.
1079 \begin_layout Standard
1080 It also makes the same guarantee for any other key in the chain, which is
1081 an internal implementation detail and potentially a cause for deadlock.
1084 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1088 \begin_layout Standard
1090 It would be nice to have an explicit single entry lock which effected no
1092 Unfortunately, this won't work for an entry which doesn't exist.
1093 Thus while chainlock may be implemented more efficiently for the existing
1094 case, it will still have overlap issues with the non-existing case.
1095 So it is best to keep the current (lack of) guarantee about which records
1096 will be effected to avoid constraining our implementation.
1099 \begin_layout Subsection
1100 Signal Handling is Not Race-Free
1103 \begin_layout Standard
1104 The tdb_setalarm_sigptr() call allows the caller's signal handler to indicate
1105 that the tdb locking code should return with a failure, rather than trying
1106 again when a signal is received (and errno == EAGAIN).
1107 This is usually used to implement timeouts.
1110 \begin_layout Standard
1111 Unfortunately, this does not work in the case where the signal is received
1112 before the tdb code enters the fcntl() call to place the lock: the code
1113 will sleep within the fcntl() code, unaware that the signal wants it to
1115 In the case of long timeouts, this does not happen in practice.
1118 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1122 \begin_layout Standard
1123 The locking hooks proposed in
1124 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
1126 reference "Proposed-Solution-locking-hook"
1130 would allow the user to decide on whether to fail the lock acquisition
1132 This allows the caller to choose their own compromise: they could narrow
1133 the race by checking immediately before the fcntl call.
1137 \begin_layout Plain Layout
1138 It may be possible to make this race-free in some implementations by having
1139 the signal handler alter the struct flock to make it invalid.
1140 This will cause the fcntl() lock call to fail with EINVAL if the signal
1141 occurs before the kernel is entered, otherwise EAGAIN.
1149 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1153 \begin_layout Standard
1157 \begin_layout Subsection
1158 The API Uses Gratuitous Typedefs, Capitals
1161 \begin_layout Standard
1162 typedefs are useful for providing source compatibility when types can differ
1163 across implementations, or arguably in the case of function pointer definitions
1164 which are hard for humans to parse.
1165 Otherwise it is simply obfuscation and pollutes the namespace.
1168 \begin_layout Standard
1169 Capitalization is usually reserved for compile-time constants and macros.
1172 \begin_layout Description
1173 TDB_CONTEXT There is no reason to use this over 'struct tdb_context'; the
1174 definition isn't visible to the API user anyway.
1177 \begin_layout Description
1178 TDB_DATA There is no reason to use this over struct TDB_DATA; the struct
1179 needs to be understood by the API user.
1182 \begin_layout Description
1184 \begin_inset space ~
1187 TDB_DATA This would normally be called 'struct tdb_data'.
1190 \begin_layout Description
1192 \begin_inset space ~
1195 TDB_ERROR Similarly, this would normally be enum tdb_error.
1198 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1202 \begin_layout Standard
1204 Introducing lower case variants would please pedants like myself, but if
1205 it were done the existing ones should be kept.
1206 There is little point forcing a purely cosmetic change upon tdb users.
1209 \begin_layout Subsection
1210 \begin_inset CommandInset label
1212 name "tdb_log_func-Doesnt-Take"
1216 tdb_log_func Doesn't Take The Private Pointer
1219 \begin_layout Standard
1220 For API compatibility reasons, the logging function needs to call tdb_get_loggin
1221 g_private() to retrieve the pointer registered by the tdb_open_ex for logging.
1224 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1228 \begin_layout Standard
1229 It should simply take an extra argument, since we are prepared to break
1233 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1237 \begin_layout Standard
1241 \begin_layout Subsection
1242 Various Callback Functions Are Not Typesafe
1245 \begin_layout Standard
1246 The callback functions in tdb_set_logging_function (after
1247 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
1249 reference "tdb_log_func-Doesnt-Take"
1253 is resolved), tdb_parse_record, tdb_traverse, tdb_traverse_read and tdb_check
1254 all take void * and must internally convert it to the argument type they
1258 \begin_layout Standard
1259 If this type changes, the compiler will not produce warnings on the callers,
1260 since it only sees void *.
1263 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1267 \begin_layout Standard
1268 With careful use of macros, we can create callback functions which give
1269 a warning when used on gcc and the types of the callback and its private
1271 Unsupported compilers will not give a warning, which is no worse than now.
1272 In addition, the callbacks become clearer, as they need not use void *
1273 for their parameter.
1276 \begin_layout Standard
1277 See CCAN's typesafe_cb module at http://ccan.ozlabs.org/info/typesafe_cb.html
1280 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1284 \begin_layout Standard
1286 \change_deleted 0 1300360712
1288 \change_inserted 0 1300360716
1294 \begin_layout Subsection
1295 TDB_CLEAR_IF_FIRST Must Be Specified On All Opens, tdb_reopen_all Problematic
1298 \begin_layout Standard
1299 The TDB_CLEAR_IF_FIRST flag to tdb_open indicates that the TDB file should
1300 be cleared if the caller discovers it is the only process with the TDB
1302 However, if any caller does not specify TDB_CLEAR_IF_FIRST it will not
1303 be detected, so will have the TDB erased underneath them (usually resulting
1307 \begin_layout Standard
1308 There is a similar issue on fork(); if the parent exits (or otherwise closes
1309 the tdb) before the child calls tdb_reopen_all() to establish the lock
1310 used to indicate the TDB is opened by someone, a TDB_CLEAR_IF_FIRST opener
1311 at that moment will believe it alone has opened the TDB and will erase
1315 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1319 \begin_layout Standard
1320 Remove TDB_CLEAR_IF_FIRST.
1321 Other workarounds are possible, but see
1322 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
1324 reference "TDB_CLEAR_IF_FIRST-Imposes-Performance"
1331 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1335 \begin_layout Standard
1337 \change_deleted 0 1298979699
1338 Incomplete, TDB_CLEAR_IF_FIRST still defined, but not implemented.
1339 \change_inserted 0 1298979700
1345 \begin_layout Subsection
1346 Extending The Header Is Difficult
1349 \begin_layout Standard
1350 We have reserved (zeroed) words in the TDB header, which can be used for
1352 If the future features are compulsory, the version number must be updated
1353 to prevent old code from accessing the database.
1354 But if the future feature is optional, we have no way of telling if older
1355 code is accessing the database or not.
1358 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1362 \begin_layout Standard
1363 The header should contain a
1364 \begin_inset Quotes eld
1368 \begin_inset Quotes erd
1372 This is divided into two 32-bit parts:
1375 \begin_layout Enumerate
1376 The lower part reflects the format variant understood by code accessing
1380 \begin_layout Enumerate
1381 The upper part reflects the format variant you must understand to write
1382 to the database (otherwise you can only open for reading).
1385 \begin_layout Standard
1386 The latter field can only be written at creation time, the former should
1387 be written under the OPEN_LOCK when opening the database for writing, if
1388 the variant of the code is lower than the current lowest variant.
1391 \begin_layout Standard
1392 This should allow backwards-compatible features to be added, and detection
1393 if older code (which doesn't understand the feature) writes to the database.
1396 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1400 \begin_layout Standard
1402 \change_deleted 0 1300360753
1404 \change_inserted 0 1300360754
1410 \begin_layout Subsection
1411 Record Headers Are Not Expandible
1414 \begin_layout Standard
1415 If we later want to add (say) checksums on keys and data, it would require
1416 another format change, which we'd like to avoid.
1419 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1423 \begin_layout Standard
1424 We often have extra padding at the tail of a record.
1425 If we ensure that the first byte (if any) of this padding is zero, we will
1426 have a way for future changes to detect code which doesn't understand a
1427 new format: the new code would write (say) a 1 at the tail, and thus if
1428 there is no tail or the first byte is 0, we would know the extension is
1429 not present on that record.
1432 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1436 \begin_layout Standard
1438 \change_deleted 0 1300360766
1440 \change_inserted 0 1300360767
1446 \begin_layout Subsection
1447 TDB Does Not Use Talloc
1450 \begin_layout Standard
1451 Many users of TDB (particularly Samba) use the talloc allocator, and thus
1452 have to wrap TDB in a talloc context to use it conveniently.
1455 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1459 \begin_layout Standard
1460 The allocation within TDB is not complicated enough to justify the use of
1461 talloc, and I am reluctant to force another (excellent) library on TDB
1463 Nonetheless a compromise is possible.
1465 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
1467 reference "attributes"
1471 ) can be added later to tdb_open() to provide an alternate allocation mechanism,
1472 specifically for talloc but usable by any other allocator (which would
1474 \begin_inset Quotes eld
1478 \begin_inset Quotes erd
1484 \begin_layout Standard
1485 This would form a talloc heirarchy as expected, but the caller would still
1486 have to attach a destructor to the tdb context returned from tdb_open to
1488 All TDB_DATA fields would be children of the tdb_context, and the caller
1489 would still have to manage them (using talloc_free() or talloc_steal()).
1492 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1496 \begin_layout Standard
1500 \begin_layout Section
1501 Performance And Scalability Issues
1504 \begin_layout Subsection
1505 \begin_inset CommandInset label
1507 name "TDB_CLEAR_IF_FIRST-Imposes-Performance"
1511 TDB_CLEAR_IF_FIRST Imposes Performance Penalty
1514 \begin_layout Standard
1515 When TDB_CLEAR_IF_FIRST is specified, a 1-byte read lock is placed at offset
1518 While these locks never conflict in normal tdb usage, they do add substantial
1519 overhead for most fcntl lock implementations when the kernel scans to detect
1520 if a lock conflict exists.
1521 This is often a single linked list, making the time to acquire and release
1522 a fcntl lock O(N) where N is the number of processes with the TDB open,
1523 not the number actually doing work.
1526 \begin_layout Standard
1527 In a Samba server it is common to have huge numbers of clients sitting idle,
1528 and thus they have weaned themselves off the TDB_CLEAR_IF_FIRST flag.
1532 \begin_layout Plain Layout
1533 There is a flag to tdb_reopen_all() which is used for this optimization:
1534 if the parent process will outlive the child, the child does not need the
1536 This is a workaround for this very performance issue.
1544 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1548 \begin_layout Standard
1550 It was a neat idea, but even trivial servers tend to know when they are
1551 initializing for the first time and can simply unlink the old tdb at that
1555 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1559 \begin_layout Standard
1561 \change_deleted 0 1298979837
1562 Incomplete; TDB_CLEAR_IF_FIRST still defined, but does nothing.
1563 \change_inserted 0 1298979837
1569 \begin_layout Subsection
1570 TDB Files Have a 4G Limit
1573 \begin_layout Standard
1574 This seems to be becoming an issue (so much for
1575 \begin_inset Quotes eld
1579 \begin_inset Quotes erd
1582 !), particularly for ldb.
1585 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1589 \begin_layout Standard
1590 A new, incompatible TDB format which uses 64 bit offsets internally rather
1592 For simplicity of endian conversion (which TDB does on the fly if required),
1593 all values will be 64 bit on disk.
1594 In practice, some upper bits may be used for other purposes, but at least
1595 56 bits will be available for file offsets.
1598 \begin_layout Standard
1599 tdb_open() will automatically detect the old version, and even create them
1600 if TDB_VERSION6 is specified to tdb_open.
1603 \begin_layout Standard
1604 32 bit processes will still be able to access TDBs larger than 4G (assuming
1605 that their off_t allows them to seek to 64 bits), they will gracefully
1606 fall back as they fail to mmap.
1607 This can happen already with large TDBs.
1610 \begin_layout Standard
1611 Old versions of tdb will fail to open the new TDB files (since 28 August
1612 2009, commit 398d0c29290: prior to that any unrecognized file format would
1613 be erased and initialized as a fresh tdb!)
1616 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1620 \begin_layout Standard
1624 \begin_layout Subsection
1625 TDB Records Have a 4G Limit
1628 \begin_layout Standard
1629 This has not been a reported problem, and the API uses size_t which can
1630 be 64 bit on 64 bit platforms.
1631 However, other limits may have made such an issue moot.
1634 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1638 \begin_layout Standard
1639 Record sizes will be 64 bit, with an error returned on 32 bit platforms
1640 which try to access such records (the current implementation would return
1641 TDB_ERR_OOM in a similar case).
1642 It seems unlikely that 32 bit keys will be a limitation, so the implementation
1643 may not support this (see
1644 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
1646 reference "sub:Records-Incur-A"
1653 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1657 \begin_layout Standard
1661 \begin_layout Subsection
1662 Hash Size Is Determined At TDB Creation Time
1665 \begin_layout Standard
1666 TDB contains a number of hash chains in the header; the number is specified
1667 at creation time, and defaults to 131.
1668 This is such a bottleneck on large databases (as each hash chain gets quite
1669 long), that LDB uses 10,000 for this hash.
1670 In general it is impossible to know what the 'right' answer is at database
1674 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1675 \begin_inset CommandInset label
1677 name "sub:Hash-Size-Solution"
1684 \begin_layout Standard
1685 After comprehensive performance testing on various scalable hash variants
1689 \begin_layout Plain Layout
1690 http://rusty.ozlabs.org/?p=89 and http://rusty.ozlabs.org/?p=94 This was annoying
1691 because I was previously convinced that an expanding tree of hashes would
1692 be very close to optimal.
1697 , it became clear that it is hard to beat a straight linear hash table which
1698 doubles in size when it reaches saturation.
1699 Unfortunately, altering the hash table introduces serious locking complications
1700 : the entire hash table needs to be locked to enlarge the hash table, and
1701 others might be holding locks.
1702 Particularly insidious are insertions done under tdb_chainlock.
1705 \begin_layout Standard
1706 Thus an expanding layered hash will be used: an array of hash groups, with
1707 each hash group exploding into pointers to lower hash groups once it fills,
1708 turning into a hash tree.
1709 This has implications for locking: we must lock the entire group in case
1710 we need to expand it, yet we don't know how deep the tree is at that point.
1713 \begin_layout Standard
1714 Note that bits from the hash table entries should be stolen to hold more
1715 hash bits to reduce the penalty of collisions.
1716 We can use the otherwise-unused lower 3 bits.
1717 If we limit the size of the database to 64 exabytes, we can use the top
1718 8 bits of the hash entry as well.
1719 These 11 bits would reduce false positives down to 1 in 2000 which is more
1720 than we need: we can use one of the bits to indicate that the extra hash
1722 This means we can choose not to re-hash all entries when we expand a hash
1723 group; simply use the next bits we need and mark them invalid.
1726 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1730 \begin_layout Standard
1734 \begin_layout Subsection
1735 \begin_inset CommandInset label
1737 name "TDB-Freelist-Is"
1741 TDB Freelist Is Highly Contended
1744 \begin_layout Standard
1745 TDB uses a single linked list for the free list.
1746 Allocation occurs as follows, using heuristics which have evolved over
1750 \begin_layout Enumerate
1751 Get the free list lock for this whole operation.
1754 \begin_layout Enumerate
1755 Multiply length by 1.25, so we always over-allocate by 25%.
1758 \begin_layout Enumerate
1759 Set the slack multiplier to 1.
1762 \begin_layout Enumerate
1763 Examine the current freelist entry: if it is > length but < the current
1764 best case, remember it as the best case.
1767 \begin_layout Enumerate
1768 Multiply the slack multiplier by 1.05.
1771 \begin_layout Enumerate
1772 If our best fit so far is less than length * slack multiplier, return it.
1773 The slack will be turned into a new free record if it's large enough.
1776 \begin_layout Enumerate
1777 Otherwise, go onto the next freelist entry.
1780 \begin_layout Standard
1781 Deleting a record occurs as follows:
1784 \begin_layout Enumerate
1785 Lock the hash chain for this whole operation.
1788 \begin_layout Enumerate
1789 Walk the chain to find the record, keeping the prev pointer offset.
1792 \begin_layout Enumerate
1793 If max_dead is non-zero:
1797 \begin_layout Enumerate
1798 Walk the hash chain again and count the dead records.
1801 \begin_layout Enumerate
1802 If it's more than max_dead, bulk free all the dead ones (similar to steps
1803 4 and below, but the lock is only obtained once).
1806 \begin_layout Enumerate
1807 Simply mark this record as dead and return.
1812 \begin_layout Enumerate
1813 Get the free list lock for the remainder of this operation.
1816 \begin_layout Enumerate
1817 \begin_inset CommandInset label
1819 name "right-merging"
1823 Examine the following block to see if it is free; if so, enlarge the current
1824 block and remove that block from the free list.
1825 This was disabled, as removal from the free list was O(entries-in-free-list).
1828 \begin_layout Enumerate
1829 Examine the preceeding block to see if it is free: for this reason, each
1830 block has a 32-bit tailer which indicates its length.
1831 If it is free, expand it to cover our new block and return.
1834 \begin_layout Enumerate
1835 Otherwise, prepend ourselves to the free list.
1838 \begin_layout Standard
1839 Disabling right-merging (step
1840 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
1842 reference "right-merging"
1846 ) causes fragmentation; the other heuristics proved insufficient to address
1847 this, so the final answer to this was that when we expand the TDB file
1848 inside a transaction commit, we repack the entire tdb.
1851 \begin_layout Standard
1852 The single list lock limits our allocation rate; due to the other issues
1853 this is not currently seen as a bottleneck.
1856 \begin_layout Subsubsection
1860 \begin_layout Standard
1861 The first step is to remove all the current heuristics, as they obviously
1862 interact, then examine them once the lock contention is addressed.
1865 \begin_layout Standard
1866 The free list must be split to reduce contention.
1867 Assuming perfect free merging, we can at most have 1 free list entry for
1869 This implies that the number of free lists is related to the size of the
1870 hash table, but as it is rare to walk a large number of free list entries
1871 we can use far fewer, say 1/32 of the number of hash buckets.
1874 \begin_layout Standard
1875 It seems tempting to try to reuse the hash implementation which we use for
1876 records here, but we have two ways of searching for free entries: for allocatio
1877 n we search by size (and possibly zone) which produces too many clashes
1878 for our hash table to handle well, and for coalescing we search by address.
1879 Thus an array of doubly-linked free lists seems preferable.
1882 \begin_layout Standard
1883 There are various benefits in using per-size free lists (see
1884 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
1886 reference "sub:TDB-Becomes-Fragmented"
1890 ) but it's not clear this would reduce contention in the common case where
1891 all processes are allocating/freeing the same size.
1892 Thus we almost certainly need to divide in other ways: the most obvious
1893 is to divide the file into zones, and using a free list (or table of free
1895 This approximates address ordering.
1898 \begin_layout Standard
1899 Unfortunately it is difficult to know what heuristics should be used to
1900 determine zone sizes, and our transaction code relies on being able to
1902 \begin_inset Quotes eld
1906 \begin_inset Quotes erd
1909 by simply appending to the file (difficult if it would need to create a
1911 Thus we use a linked-list of free tables; currently we only ever create
1912 one, but if there is more than one we choose one at random to use.
1913 In future we may use heuristics to add new free tables on contention.
1914 We only expand the file when all free tables are exhausted.
1917 \begin_layout Standard
1918 The basic algorithm is as follows.
1922 \begin_layout Enumerate
1923 Identify the correct free list.
1926 \begin_layout Enumerate
1927 Lock the corresponding list.
1930 \begin_layout Enumerate
1931 Re-check the list (we didn't have a lock, sizes could have changed): relock
1935 \begin_layout Enumerate
1936 Place the freed entry in the list.
1939 \begin_layout Standard
1940 Allocation is a little more complicated, as we perform delayed coalescing
1944 \begin_layout Enumerate
1945 Pick a free table; usually the previous one.
1948 \begin_layout Enumerate
1949 Lock the corresponding list.
1952 \begin_layout Enumerate
1953 If the top entry is -large enough, remove it from the list and return it.
1956 \begin_layout Enumerate
1957 Otherwise, coalesce entries in the list.If there was no entry large enough,
1958 unlock the list and try the next largest list
1961 \begin_layout Enumerate
1962 If no list has an entry which meets our needs, try the next free table.
1965 \begin_layout Enumerate
1966 If no zone satisfies, expand the file.
1969 \begin_layout Standard
1970 This optimizes rapid insert/delete of free list entries by not coalescing
1972 First-fit address ordering ordering seems to be fairly good for keeping
1973 fragmentation low (see
1974 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
1976 reference "sub:TDB-Becomes-Fragmented"
1981 Note that address ordering does not need a tailer to coalesce, though if
1982 we needed one we could have one cheaply: see
1983 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
1985 reference "sub:Records-Incur-A"
1993 \begin_layout Standard
1994 Each free entry has the free table number in the header: less than 255.
1995 It also contains a doubly-linked list for easy deletion.
1998 \begin_layout Subsection
1999 \begin_inset CommandInset label
2001 name "sub:TDB-Becomes-Fragmented"
2005 TDB Becomes Fragmented
2008 \begin_layout Standard
2009 Much of this is a result of allocation strategy
2013 \begin_layout Plain Layout
2014 The Memory Fragmentation Problem: Solved? Johnstone & Wilson 1995 ftp://ftp.cs.ute
2015 xas.edu/pub/garbage/malloc/ismm98.ps
2020 and deliberate hobbling of coalescing; internal fragmentation (aka overallocati
2021 on) is deliberately set at 25%, and external fragmentation is only cured
2022 by the decision to repack the entire db when a transaction commit needs
2023 to enlarge the file.
2026 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2030 \begin_layout Standard
2031 The 25% overhead on allocation works in practice for ldb because indexes
2032 tend to expand by one record at a time.
2033 This internal fragmentation can be resolved by having an
2034 \begin_inset Quotes eld
2038 \begin_inset Quotes erd
2041 bit in the header to note entries that have previously expanded, and allocating
2042 more space for them.
2045 \begin_layout Standard
2046 There are is a spectrum of possible solutions for external fragmentation:
2047 one is to use a fragmentation-avoiding allocation strategy such as best-fit
2048 address-order allocator.
2049 The other end of the spectrum would be to use a bump allocator (very fast
2050 and simple) and simply repack the file when we reach the end.
2053 \begin_layout Standard
2054 There are three problems with efficient fragmentation-avoiding allocators:
2055 they are non-trivial, they tend to use a single free list for each size,
2056 and there's no evidence that tdb allocation patterns will match those recorded
2057 for general allocators (though it seems likely).
2060 \begin_layout Standard
2061 Thus we don't spend too much effort on external fragmentation; we will be
2062 no worse than the current code if we need to repack on occasion.
2063 More effort is spent on reducing freelist contention, and reducing overhead.
2066 \begin_layout Subsection
2067 \begin_inset CommandInset label
2069 name "sub:Records-Incur-A"
2073 Records Incur A 28-Byte Overhead
2076 \begin_layout Standard
2077 Each TDB record has a header as follows:
2080 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2084 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2085 tdb_off_t next; /* offset of the next record in the list */
2088 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2089 tdb_len_t rec_len; /* total byte length of record */
2092 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2093 tdb_len_t key_len; /* byte length of key */
2096 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2097 tdb_len_t data_len; /* byte length of data */
2100 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2101 uint32_t full_hash; /* the full 32 bit hash of the key */
2104 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2105 uint32_t magic; /* try to catch errors */
2108 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2109 /* the following union is implied:
2112 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2116 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2117 char record[rec_len];
2120 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2124 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2128 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2129 char data[data_len];
2132 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2136 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2137 uint32_t totalsize; (tailer)
2140 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2144 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2148 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2152 \begin_layout Standard
2153 Naively, this would double to a 56-byte overhead on a 64 bit implementation.
2156 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2160 \begin_layout Standard
2161 We can use various techniques to reduce this for an allocated block:
2164 \begin_layout Enumerate
2165 The 'next' pointer is not required, as we are using a flat hash table.
2168 \begin_layout Enumerate
2169 'rec_len' can instead be expressed as an addition to key_len and data_len
2170 (it accounts for wasted or overallocated length in the record).
2171 Since the record length is always a multiple of 8, we can conveniently
2172 fit it in 32 bits (representing up to 35 bits).
2175 \begin_layout Enumerate
2176 'key_len' and 'data_len' can be reduced.
2177 I'm unwilling to restrict 'data_len' to 32 bits, but instead we can combine
2178 the two into one 64-bit field and using a 5 bit value which indicates at
2179 what bit to divide the two.
2180 Keys are unlikely to scale as fast as data, so I'm assuming a maximum key
2184 \begin_layout Enumerate
2185 'full_hash' is used to avoid a memcmp on the
2186 \begin_inset Quotes eld
2190 \begin_inset Quotes erd
2193 case, but this is diminishing returns after a handful of bits (at 10 bits,
2194 it reduces 99.9% of false memcmp).
2195 As an aside, as the lower bits are already incorporated in the hash table
2196 resolution, the upper bits should be used here.
2197 Note that it's not clear that these bits will be a win, given the extra
2198 bits in the hash table itself (see
2199 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
2201 reference "sub:Hash-Size-Solution"
2208 \begin_layout Enumerate
2209 'magic' does not need to be enlarged: it currently reflects one of 5 values
2210 (used, free, dead, recovery, and unused_recovery).
2211 It is useful for quick sanity checking however, and should not be eliminated.
2214 \begin_layout Enumerate
2215 'tailer' is only used to coalesce free blocks (so a block to the right can
2216 find the header to check if this block is free).
2217 This can be replaced by a single 'free' bit in the header of the following
2218 block (and the tailer only exists in free blocks).
2222 \begin_layout Plain Layout
2223 This technique from Thomas Standish.
2224 Data Structure Techniques.
2225 Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1980.
2230 The current proposed coalescing algorithm doesn't need this, however.
2233 \begin_layout Standard
2234 This produces a 16 byte used header like this:
2237 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2238 struct tdb_used_record {
2241 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2242 uint32_t used_magic : 16,
2245 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2249 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2253 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2257 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2258 uint32_t extra_octets;
2261 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2262 uint64_t key_and_data_len;
2265 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2269 \begin_layout Standard
2270 And a free record like this:
2273 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2274 struct tdb_free_record {
2277 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2278 uint64_t free_magic: 8,
2281 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2285 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2289 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2290 uint64_t free_table: 8,
2293 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2297 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2301 \begin_layout LyX-Code
2305 \begin_layout Standard
2307 \change_deleted 0 1291206079
2310 Note that by limiting valid offsets to 56 bits, we can pack everything we
2311 need into 3 64-byte words, meaning our minimum record size is 8 bytes.
2314 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2318 \begin_layout Standard
2322 \begin_layout Subsection
2323 Transaction Commit Requires 4 fdatasync
2326 \begin_layout Standard
2327 The current transaction algorithm is:
2330 \begin_layout Enumerate
2331 write_recovery_data();
2334 \begin_layout Enumerate
2338 \begin_layout Enumerate
2339 write_recovery_header();
2342 \begin_layout Enumerate
2346 \begin_layout Enumerate
2347 overwrite_with_new_data();
2350 \begin_layout Enumerate
2354 \begin_layout Enumerate
2355 remove_recovery_header();
2358 \begin_layout Enumerate
2362 \begin_layout Standard
2363 On current ext3, each sync flushes all data to disk, so the next 3 syncs
2364 are relatively expensive.
2365 But this could become a performance bottleneck on other filesystems such
2369 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2373 \begin_layout Standard
2374 Neil Brown points out that this is overzealous, and only one sync is needed:
2377 \begin_layout Enumerate
2378 Bundle the recovery data, a transaction counter and a strong checksum of
2382 \begin_layout Enumerate
2383 Strong checksum that whole bundle.
2386 \begin_layout Enumerate
2387 Store the bundle in the database.
2390 \begin_layout Enumerate
2391 Overwrite the oldest of the two recovery pointers in the header (identified
2392 using the transaction counter) with the offset of this bundle.
2395 \begin_layout Enumerate
2399 \begin_layout Enumerate
2400 Write the new data to the file.
2403 \begin_layout Standard
2404 Checking for recovery means identifying the latest bundle with a valid checksum
2405 and using the new data checksum to ensure that it has been applied.
2406 This is more expensive than the current check, but need only be done at
2408 For running databases, a separate header field can be used to indicate
2409 a transaction in progress; we need only check for recovery if this is set.
2412 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2416 \begin_layout Standard
2420 \begin_layout Subsection
2421 \begin_inset CommandInset label
2423 name "sub:TDB-Does-Not"
2427 TDB Does Not Have Snapshot Support
2430 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2431 Proposed SolutionNone.
2432 At some point you say
2433 \begin_inset Quotes eld
2437 \begin_inset Quotes erd
2441 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
2443 reference "replay-attribute"
2450 \begin_layout Standard
2451 But as a thought experiment, if we implemented transactions to only overwrite
2452 free entries (this is tricky: there must not be a header in each entry
2453 which indicates whether it is free, but use of presence in metadata elsewhere),
2454 and a pointer to the hash table, we could create an entirely new commit
2455 without destroying existing data.
2456 Then it would be easy to implement snapshots in a similar way.
2459 \begin_layout Standard
2460 This would not allow arbitrary changes to the database, such as tdb_repack
2461 does, and would require more space (since we have to preserve the current
2462 and future entries at once).
2463 If we used hash trees rather than one big hash table, we might only have
2464 to rewrite some sections of the hash, too.
2467 \begin_layout Standard
2468 We could then implement snapshots using a similar method, using multiple
2469 different hash tables/free tables.
2472 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2476 \begin_layout Standard
2480 \begin_layout Subsection
2481 Transactions Cannot Operate in Parallel
2484 \begin_layout Standard
2485 This would be useless for ldb, as it hits the index records with just about
2487 It would add significant complexity in resolving clashes, and cause the
2488 all transaction callers to write their code to loop in the case where the
2489 transactions spuriously failed.
2492 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2496 \begin_layout Standard
2498 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
2500 reference "replay-attribute"
2505 We could solve a small part of the problem by providing read-only transactions.
2506 These would allow one write transaction to begin, but it could not commit
2507 until all r/o transactions are done.
2508 This would require a new RO_TRANSACTION_LOCK, which would be upgraded on
2512 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2516 \begin_layout Standard
2520 \begin_layout Subsection
2521 Default Hash Function Is Suboptimal
2524 \begin_layout Standard
2525 The Knuth-inspired multiplicative hash used by tdb is fairly slow (especially
2526 if we expand it to 64 bits), and works best when the hash bucket size is
2527 a prime number (which also means a slow modulus).
2528 In addition, it is highly predictable which could potentially lead to a
2529 Denial of Service attack in some TDB uses.
2532 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2536 \begin_layout Standard
2537 The Jenkins lookup3 hash
2541 \begin_layout Plain Layout
2542 http://burtleburtle.net/bob/c/lookup3.c
2547 is a fast and superbly-mixing hash.
2548 It's used by the Linux kernel and almost everything else.
2549 This has the particular properties that it takes an initial seed, and produces
2550 two 32 bit hash numbers, which we can combine into a 64-bit hash.
2553 \begin_layout Standard
2554 The seed should be created at tdb-creation time from some random source,
2555 and placed in the header.
2556 This is far from foolproof, but adds a little bit of protection against
2560 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2564 \begin_layout Standard
2568 \begin_layout Subsection
2569 \begin_inset CommandInset label
2571 name "Reliable-Traversal-Adds"
2575 Reliable Traversal Adds Complexity
2578 \begin_layout Standard
2579 We lock a record during traversal iteration, and try to grab that lock in
2581 If that grab on delete fails, we simply mark it deleted and continue onwards;
2582 traversal checks for this condition and does the delete when it moves off
2586 \begin_layout Standard
2587 If traversal terminates, the dead record may be left indefinitely.
2590 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2594 \begin_layout Standard
2595 Remove reliability guarantees; see
2596 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
2598 reference "traverse-Proposed-Solution"
2605 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2609 \begin_layout Standard
2613 \begin_layout Subsection
2614 Fcntl Locking Adds Overhead
2617 \begin_layout Standard
2618 Placing a fcntl lock means a system call, as does removing one.
2619 This is actually one reason why transactions can be faster (everything
2620 is locked once at transaction start).
2621 In the uncontended case, this overhead can theoretically be eliminated.
2624 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2628 \begin_layout Standard
2632 \begin_layout Standard
2633 We tried this before with spinlock support, in the early days of TDB, and
2634 it didn't make much difference except in manufactured benchmarks.
2637 \begin_layout Standard
2638 We could use spinlocks (with futex kernel support under Linux), but it means
2639 that we lose automatic cleanup when a process dies with a lock.
2640 There is a method of auto-cleanup under Linux, but it's not supported by
2641 other operating systems.
2642 We could reintroduce a clear-if-first-style lock and sweep for dead futexes
2643 on open, but that wouldn't help the normal case of one concurrent opener
2645 Increasingly elaborate repair schemes could be considered, but they require
2646 an ABI change (everyone must use them) anyway, so there's no need to do
2647 this at the same time as everything else.
2650 \begin_layout Subsection
2651 Some Transactions Don't Require Durability
2654 \begin_layout Standard
2655 Volker points out that gencache uses a CLEAR_IF_FIRST tdb for normal (fast)
2656 usage, and occasionally empties the results into a transactional TDB.
2657 This kind of usage prioritizes performance over durability: as long as
2658 we are consistent, data can be lost.
2661 \begin_layout Standard
2662 This would be more neatly implemented inside tdb: a
2663 \begin_inset Quotes eld
2667 \begin_inset Quotes erd
2670 transaction commit (ie.
2671 syncless) which meant that data may be reverted on a crash.
2674 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2678 \begin_layout Standard
2682 \begin_layout Standard
2683 Unfortunately any transaction scheme which overwrites old data requires
2684 a sync before that overwrite to avoid the possibility of corruption.
2687 \begin_layout Standard
2688 It seems possible to use a scheme similar to that described in
2689 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
2691 reference "sub:TDB-Does-Not"
2695 ,where transactions are committed without overwriting existing data, and
2696 an array of top-level pointers were available in the header.
2697 If the transaction is
2698 \begin_inset Quotes eld
2702 \begin_inset Quotes erd
2705 then we would not need a sync at all: existing processes would pick up
2706 the new hash table and free list and work with that.
2709 \begin_layout Standard
2710 At some later point, a sync would allow recovery of the old data into the
2711 free lists (perhaps when the array of top-level pointers filled).
2712 On crash, tdb_open() would examine the array of top levels, and apply the
2713 transactions until it encountered an invalid checksum.
2716 \begin_layout Subsection
2717 Tracing Is Fragile, Replay Is External
2720 \begin_layout Standard
2721 The current TDB has compile-time-enabled tracing code, but it often breaks
2722 as it is not enabled by default.
2723 In a similar way, the ctdb code has an external wrapper which does replay
2724 tracing so it can coordinate cluster-wide transactions.
2727 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2729 \begin_inset CommandInset label
2731 name "replay-attribute"
2738 \begin_layout Standard
2739 Tridge points out that an attribute can be later added to tdb_open (see
2741 \begin_inset CommandInset ref
2743 reference "attributes"
2747 ) to provide replay/trace hooks, which could become the basis for this and
2748 future parallel transactions and snapshot support.
2751 \begin_layout Subsubsection
2755 \begin_layout Standard