Reviewing LevelDBPart XV–MemTables gets compacted too
time to read 2 min | 286 words

As mentioned before, every 4 MB or so, we will move the current memtable and switch to a new one, turning the current one into an immutable memtable, which will then be compacted to disk. This post is about that process. The work there is done by the surprisingly name: DBImpl::CompactMemTable, which then calls to WriteLevel0Table.

That method build the actual table, using the same approach I already covered. Honestly, the code is pretty obvious now that I spent enough time reading this. The only thing of interest is DeleteObsoleteFiles() method, which looks interesting if only because it is one of the few places leveldb actually does real work with files. Mostly, however, ParseFileName is interesting:

image

It give me a good way to look at the actual files being used. This will be important when we will investigate how leveldb handles recovery.

Leveldb will consider files obsolete if:

  • They are log files and aren't of the current/previous log number.
  • If it is a manifest file, keep the current one (or later if there are any).
  • If it is a table file, keep it if it is in use. A table file may have been compacted away.
  • If it is a lock file, info log or the current db file.

All of this is interesting, but on a minor level. I think that we are nearing the end of the codebase now. The only thing that I really want to go into is the recovery parts, and that would pretty much be it.

Tweet Share Share 0 comments
Tags:

More posts in "Reviewing LevelDB" series:

  1. (26 Apr 2013) Part XVIII–Summary
  2. (15 Apr 2013) Part XVII– Filters? What filters? Oh, those filters…
  3. (12 Apr 2013) Part XV–MemTables gets compacted too
  4. (11 Apr 2013) Part XVI–Recovery ain’t so tough?
  5. (10 Apr 2013) Part XIV– there is the mem table and then there is the immutable memtable
  6. (09 Apr 2013) Part XIII–Smile, and here is your snapshot
  7. (08 Apr 2013) Part XII–Reading an SST
  8. (05 Apr 2013) Part XI–Reading from Sort String Tables via the TableCache
  9. (04 Apr 2013) Part X–table building is all fun and games until…
  10. (03 Apr 2013) Part IX- Compaction is the new black
  11. (02 Apr 2013) Part VIII–What are the levels all about?
  12. (29 Mar 2013) Part VII–The version is where the levels are
  13. (28 Mar 2013) Part VI, the Log is base for Atomicity
  14. (27 Mar 2013) Part V, into the MemTables we go
  15. (26 Mar 2013) Part IV
  16. (22 Mar 2013) Part III, WriteBatch isn’t what you think it is
  17. (21 Mar 2013) Part II, Put some data on the disk, dude
  18. (20 Mar 2013) Part I, What is this all about?