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<!DOCTYPE html> | |||
<html> | |||
<head> | |||
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="doc.css" /> | |||
<title>Leveldb file layout and compactions</title> | |||
</head> | |||
<body> | |||
<h1>Files</h1> | |||
The implementation of leveldb is similar in spirit to the | |||
representation of a single | |||
<a href="http://research.google.com/archive/bigtable.html"> | |||
Bigtable tablet (section 5.3)</a>. | |||
However the organization of the files that make up the representation | |||
is somewhat different and is explained below. | |||
<p> | |||
Each database is represented by a set of files stored in a directory. | |||
There are several different types of files as documented below: | |||
<p> | |||
<h2>Log files</h2> | |||
<p> | |||
A log file (*.log) stores a sequence of recent updates. Each update | |||
is appended to the current log file. When the log file reaches a | |||
pre-determined size (approximately 4MB by default), it is converted | |||
to a sorted table (see below) and a new log file is created for future | |||
updates. | |||
<p> | |||
A copy of the current log file is kept in an in-memory structure (the | |||
<code>memtable</code>). This copy is consulted on every read so that read | |||
operations reflect all logged updates. | |||
<p> | |||
<h2>Sorted tables</h2> | |||
<p> | |||
A sorted table (*.sst) stores a sequence of entries sorted by key. | |||
Each entry is either a value for the key, or a deletion marker for the | |||
key. (Deletion markers are kept around to hide obsolete values | |||
present in older sorted tables). | |||
<p> | |||
The set of sorted tables are organized into a sequence of levels. The | |||
sorted table generated from a log file is placed in a special <code>young</code> | |||
level (also called level-0). When the number of young files exceeds a | |||
certain threshold (currently four), all of the young files are merged | |||
together with all of the overlapping level-1 files to produce a | |||
sequence of new level-1 files (we create a new level-1 file for every | |||
2MB of data.) | |||
<p> | |||
Files in the young level may contain overlapping keys. However files | |||
in other levels have distinct non-overlapping key ranges. Consider | |||
level number L where L >= 1. When the combined size of files in | |||
level-L exceeds (10^L) MB (i.e., 10MB for level-1, 100MB for level-2, | |||
...), one file in level-L, and all of the overlapping files in | |||
level-(L+1) are merged to form a set of new files for level-(L+1). | |||
These merges have the effect of gradually migrating new updates from | |||
the young level to the largest level using only bulk reads and writes | |||
(i.e., minimizing expensive seeks). | |||
<h2>Manifest</h2> | |||
<p> | |||
A MANIFEST file lists the set of sorted tables that make up each | |||
level, the corresponding key ranges, and other important metadata. | |||
A new MANIFEST file (with a new number embedded in the file name) | |||
is created whenever the database is reopened. The MANIFEST file is | |||
formatted as a log, and changes made to the serving state (as files | |||
are added or removed) are appended to this log. | |||
<p> | |||
<h2>Current</h2> | |||
<p> | |||
CURRENT is a simple text file that contains the name of the latest | |||
MANIFEST file. | |||
<p> | |||
<h2>Info logs</h2> | |||
<p> | |||
Informational messages are printed to files named LOG and LOG.old. | |||
<p> | |||
<h2>Others</h2> | |||
<p> | |||
Other files used for miscellaneous purposes may also be present | |||
(LOCK, *.dbtmp). | |||
<h1>Level 0</h1> | |||
When the log file grows above a certain size (1MB by default): | |||
<ul> | |||
<li>Create a brand new memtable and log file and direct future updates here | |||
<li>In the background: | |||
<ul> | |||
<li>Write the contents of the previous memtable to an sstable | |||
<li>Discard the memtable | |||
<li>Delete the old log file and the old memtable | |||
<li>Add the new sstable to the young (level-0) level. | |||
</ul> | |||
</ul> | |||
<h1>Compactions</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
When the size of level L exceeds its limit, we compact it in a | |||
background thread. The compaction picks a file from level L and all | |||
overlapping files from the next level L+1. Note that if a level-L | |||
file overlaps only part of a level-(L+1) file, the entire file at | |||
level-(L+1) is used as an input to the compaction and will be | |||
discarded after the compaction. Aside: because level-0 is special | |||
(files in it may overlap each other), we treat compactions from | |||
level-0 to level-1 specially: a level-0 compaction may pick more than | |||
one level-0 file in case some of these files overlap each other. | |||
<p> | |||
A compaction merges the contents of the picked files to produce a | |||
sequence of level-(L+1) files. We switch to producing a new | |||
level-(L+1) file after the current output file has reached the target | |||
file size (2MB). We also switch to a new output file when the key | |||
range of the current output file has grown enough to overlap more than | |||
ten level-(L+2) files. This last rule ensures that a later compaction | |||
of a level-(L+1) file will not pick up too much data from level-(L+2). | |||
<p> | |||
The old files are discarded and the new files are added to the serving | |||
state. | |||
<p> | |||
Compactions for a particular level rotate through the key space. In | |||
more detail, for each level L, we remember the ending key of the last | |||
compaction at level L. The next compaction for level L will pick the | |||
first file that starts after this key (wrapping around to the | |||
beginning of the key space if there is no such file). | |||
<p> | |||
Compactions drop overwritten values. They also drop deletion markers | |||
if there are no higher numbered levels that contain a file whose range | |||
overlaps the current key. | |||
<h2>Timing</h2> | |||
Level-0 compactions will read up to four 1MB files from level-0, and | |||
at worst all the level-1 files (10MB). I.e., we will read 14MB and | |||
write 14MB. | |||
<p> | |||
Other than the special level-0 compactions, we will pick one 2MB file | |||
from level L. In the worst case, this will overlap ~ 12 files from | |||
level L+1 (10 because level-(L+1) is ten times the size of level-L, | |||
and another two at the boundaries since the file ranges at level-L | |||
will usually not be aligned with the file ranges at level-L+1). The | |||
compaction will therefore read 26MB and write 26MB. Assuming a disk | |||
IO rate of 100MB/s (ballpark range for modern drives), the worst | |||
compaction cost will be approximately 0.5 second. | |||
<p> | |||
If we throttle the background writing to something small, say 10% of | |||
the full 100MB/s speed, a compaction may take up to 5 seconds. If the | |||
user is writing at 10MB/s, we might build up lots of level-0 files | |||
(~50 to hold the 5*10MB). This may significantly increase the cost of | |||
reads due to the overhead of merging more files together on every | |||
read. | |||
<p> | |||
Solution 1: To reduce this problem, we might want to increase the log | |||
switching threshold when the number of level-0 files is large. Though | |||
the downside is that the larger this threshold, the more memory we will | |||
need to hold the corresponding memtable. | |||
<p> | |||
Solution 2: We might want to decrease write rate artificially when the | |||
number of level-0 files goes up. | |||
<p> | |||
Solution 3: We work on reducing the cost of very wide merges. | |||
Perhaps most of the level-0 files will have their blocks sitting | |||
uncompressed in the cache and we will only need to worry about the | |||
O(N) complexity in the merging iterator. | |||
<h2>Number of files</h2> | |||
Instead of always making 2MB files, we could make larger files for | |||
larger levels to reduce the total file count, though at the expense of | |||
more bursty compactions. Alternatively, we could shard the set of | |||
files into multiple directories. | |||
<p> | |||
An experiment on an <code>ext3</code> filesystem on Feb 04, 2011 shows | |||
the following timings to do 100K file opens in directories with | |||
varying number of files: | |||
<table class="datatable"> | |||
<tr><th>Files in directory</th><th>Microseconds to open a file</th></tr> | |||
<tr><td>1000</td><td>9</td> | |||
<tr><td>10000</td><td>10</td> | |||
<tr><td>100000</td><td>16</td> | |||
</table> | |||
So maybe even the sharding is not necessary on modern filesystems? | |||
<h1>Recovery</h1> | |||
<ul> | |||
<li> Read CURRENT to find name of the latest committed MANIFEST | |||
<li> Read the named MANIFEST file | |||
<li> Clean up stale files | |||
<li> We could open all sstables here, but it is probably better to be lazy... | |||
<li> Convert log chunk to a new level-0 sstable | |||
<li> Start directing new writes to a new log file with recovered sequence# | |||
</ul> | |||
<h1>Garbage collection of files</h1> | |||
<code>DeleteObsoleteFiles()</code> is called at the end of every | |||
compaction and at the end of recovery. It finds the names of all | |||
files in the database. It deletes all log files that are not the | |||
current log file. It deletes all table files that are not referenced | |||
from some level and are not the output of an active compaction. | |||
</body> | |||
</html> |
@ -0,0 +1,170 @@ | |||
## Files | |||
The implementation of leveldb is similar in spirit to the representation of a | |||
single [Bigtable tablet (section 5.3)](http://research.google.com/archive/bigtable.html). | |||
However the organization of the files that make up the representation is | |||
somewhat different and is explained below. | |||
Each database is represented by a set of files stored in a directory. There are | |||
several different types of files as documented below: | |||
### Log files | |||
A log file (*.log) stores a sequence of recent updates. Each update is appended | |||
to the current log file. When the log file reaches a pre-determined size | |||
(approximately 4MB by default), it is converted to a sorted table (see below) | |||
and a new log file is created for future updates. | |||
A copy of the current log file is kept in an in-memory structure (the | |||
`memtable`). This copy is consulted on every read so that read operations | |||
reflect all logged updates. | |||
## Sorted tables | |||
A sorted table (*.ldb) stores a sequence of entries sorted by key. Each entry is | |||
either a value for the key, or a deletion marker for the key. (Deletion markers | |||
are kept around to hide obsolete values present in older sorted tables). | |||
The set of sorted tables are organized into a sequence of levels. The sorted | |||
table generated from a log file is placed in a special **young** level (also | |||
called level-0). When the number of young files exceeds a certain threshold | |||
(currently four), all of the young files are merged together with all of the | |||
overlapping level-1 files to produce a sequence of new level-1 files (we create | |||
a new level-1 file for every 2MB of data.) | |||
Files in the young level may contain overlapping keys. However files in other | |||
levels have distinct non-overlapping key ranges. Consider level number L where | |||
L >= 1. When the combined size of files in level-L exceeds (10^L) MB (i.e., 10MB | |||
for level-1, 100MB for level-2, ...), one file in level-L, and all of the | |||
overlapping files in level-(L+1) are merged to form a set of new files for | |||
level-(L+1). These merges have the effect of gradually migrating new updates | |||
from the young level to the largest level using only bulk reads and writes | |||
(i.e., minimizing expensive seeks). | |||
### Manifest | |||
A MANIFEST file lists the set of sorted tables that make up each level, the | |||
corresponding key ranges, and other important metadata. A new MANIFEST file | |||
(with a new number embedded in the file name) is created whenever the database | |||
is reopened. The MANIFEST file is formatted as a log, and changes made to the | |||
serving state (as files are added or removed) are appended to this log. | |||
### Current | |||
CURRENT is a simple text file that contains the name of the latest MANIFEST | |||
file. | |||
### Info logs | |||
Informational messages are printed to files named LOG and LOG.old. | |||
### Others | |||
Other files used for miscellaneous purposes may also be present (LOCK, *.dbtmp). | |||
## Level 0 | |||
When the log file grows above a certain size (1MB by default): | |||
Create a brand new memtable and log file and direct future updates here | |||
In the background: | |||
Write the contents of the previous memtable to an sstable | |||
Discard the memtable | |||
Delete the old log file and the old memtable | |||
Add the new sstable to the young (level-0) level. | |||
## Compactions | |||
When the size of level L exceeds its limit, we compact it in a background | |||
thread. The compaction picks a file from level L and all overlapping files from | |||
the next level L+1. Note that if a level-L file overlaps only part of a | |||
level-(L+1) file, the entire file at level-(L+1) is used as an input to the | |||
compaction and will be discarded after the compaction. Aside: because level-0 | |||
is special (files in it may overlap each other), we treat compactions from | |||
level-0 to level-1 specially: a level-0 compaction may pick more than one | |||
level-0 file in case some of these files overlap each other. | |||
A compaction merges the contents of the picked files to produce a sequence of | |||
level-(L+1) files. We switch to producing a new level-(L+1) file after the | |||
current output file has reached the target file size (2MB). We also switch to a | |||
new output file when the key range of the current output file has grown enough | |||
to overlap more than ten level-(L+2) files. This last rule ensures that a later | |||
compaction of a level-(L+1) file will not pick up too much data from | |||
level-(L+2). | |||
The old files are discarded and the new files are added to the serving state. | |||
Compactions for a particular level rotate through the key space. In more detail, | |||
for each level L, we remember the ending key of the last compaction at level L. | |||
The next compaction for level L will pick the first file that starts after this | |||
key (wrapping around to the beginning of the key space if there is no such | |||
file). | |||
Compactions drop overwritten values. They also drop deletion markers if there | |||
are no higher numbered levels that contain a file whose range overlaps the | |||
current key. | |||
### Timing | |||
Level-0 compactions will read up to four 1MB files from level-0, and at worst | |||
all the level-1 files (10MB). I.e., we will read 14MB and write 14MB. | |||
Other than the special level-0 compactions, we will pick one 2MB file from level | |||
L. In the worst case, this will overlap ~ 12 files from level L+1 (10 because | |||
level-(L+1) is ten times the size of level-L, and another two at the boundaries | |||
since the file ranges at level-L will usually not be aligned with the file | |||
ranges at level-L+1). The compaction will therefore read 26MB and write 26MB. | |||
Assuming a disk IO rate of 100MB/s (ballpark range for modern drives), the worst | |||
compaction cost will be approximately 0.5 second. | |||
If we throttle the background writing to something small, say 10% of the full | |||
100MB/s speed, a compaction may take up to 5 seconds. If the user is writing at | |||
10MB/s, we might build up lots of level-0 files (~50 to hold the 5*10MB). This | |||
may significantly increase the cost of reads due to the overhead of merging more | |||
files together on every read. | |||
Solution 1: To reduce this problem, we might want to increase the log switching | |||
threshold when the number of level-0 files is large. Though the downside is that | |||
the larger this threshold, the more memory we will need to hold the | |||
corresponding memtable. | |||
Solution 2: We might want to decrease write rate artificially when the number of | |||
level-0 files goes up. | |||
Solution 3: We work on reducing the cost of very wide merges. Perhaps most of | |||
the level-0 files will have their blocks sitting uncompressed in the cache and | |||
we will only need to worry about the O(N) complexity in the merging iterator. | |||
### Number of files | |||
Instead of always making 2MB files, we could make larger files for larger levels | |||
to reduce the total file count, though at the expense of more bursty | |||
compactions. Alternatively, we could shard the set of files into multiple | |||
directories. | |||
An experiment on an ext3 filesystem on Feb 04, 2011 shows the following timings | |||
to do 100K file opens in directories with varying number of files: | |||
| Files in directory | Microseconds to open a file | | |||
|-------------------:|----------------------------:| | |||
| 1000 | 9 | | |||
| 10000 | 10 | | |||
| 100000 | 16 | | |||
So maybe even the sharding is not necessary on modern filesystems? | |||
## Recovery | |||
* Read CURRENT to find name of the latest committed MANIFEST | |||
* Read the named MANIFEST file | |||
* Clean up stale files | |||
* We could open all sstables here, but it is probably better to be lazy... | |||
* Convert log chunk to a new level-0 sstable | |||
* Start directing new writes to a new log file with recovered sequence# | |||
## Garbage collection of files | |||
`DeleteObsoleteFiles()` is called at the end of every compaction and at the end | |||
of recovery. It finds the names of all files in the database. It deletes all log | |||
files that are not the current log file. It deletes all table files that are not | |||
referenced from some level and are not the output of an active compaction. |
@ -1,549 +0,0 @@ | |||
<!DOCTYPE html> | |||
<html> | |||
<head> | |||
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="doc.css" /> | |||
<title>Leveldb</title> | |||
</head> | |||
<body> | |||
<h1>Leveldb</h1> | |||
<address>Jeff Dean, Sanjay Ghemawat</address> | |||
<p> | |||
The <code>leveldb</code> library provides a persistent key value store. Keys and | |||
values are arbitrary byte arrays. The keys are ordered within the key | |||
value store according to a user-specified comparator function. | |||
<p> | |||
<h1>Opening A Database</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
A <code>leveldb</code> database has a name which corresponds to a file system | |||
directory. All of the contents of database are stored in this | |||
directory. The following example shows how to open a database, | |||
creating it if necessary: | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
#include <cassert> | |||
#include "leveldb/db.h" | |||
leveldb::DB* db; | |||
leveldb::Options options; | |||
options.create_if_missing = true; | |||
leveldb::Status status = leveldb::DB::Open(options, "/tmp/testdb", &db); | |||
assert(status.ok()); | |||
... | |||
</pre> | |||
If you want to raise an error if the database already exists, add | |||
the following line before the <code>leveldb::DB::Open</code> call: | |||
<pre> | |||
options.error_if_exists = true; | |||
</pre> | |||
<h1>Status</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
You may have noticed the <code>leveldb::Status</code> type above. Values of this | |||
type are returned by most functions in <code>leveldb</code> that may encounter an | |||
error. You can check if such a result is ok, and also print an | |||
associated error message: | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
leveldb::Status s = ...; | |||
if (!s.ok()) cerr << s.ToString() << endl; | |||
</pre> | |||
<h1>Closing A Database</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
When you are done with a database, just delete the database object. | |||
Example: | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
... open the db as described above ... | |||
... do something with db ... | |||
delete db; | |||
</pre> | |||
<h1>Reads And Writes</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
The database provides <code>Put</code>, <code>Delete</code>, and <code>Get</code> methods to | |||
modify/query the database. For example, the following code | |||
moves the value stored under key1 to key2. | |||
<pre> | |||
std::string value; | |||
leveldb::Status s = db->Get(leveldb::ReadOptions(), key1, &value); | |||
if (s.ok()) s = db->Put(leveldb::WriteOptions(), key2, value); | |||
if (s.ok()) s = db->Delete(leveldb::WriteOptions(), key1); | |||
</pre> | |||
<h1>Atomic Updates</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
Note that if the process dies after the Put of key2 but before the | |||
delete of key1, the same value may be left stored under multiple keys. | |||
Such problems can be avoided by using the <code>WriteBatch</code> class to | |||
atomically apply a set of updates: | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
#include "leveldb/write_batch.h" | |||
... | |||
std::string value; | |||
leveldb::Status s = db->Get(leveldb::ReadOptions(), key1, &value); | |||
if (s.ok()) { | |||
leveldb::WriteBatch batch; | |||
batch.Delete(key1); | |||
batch.Put(key2, value); | |||
s = db->Write(leveldb::WriteOptions(), &batch); | |||
} | |||
</pre> | |||
The <code>WriteBatch</code> holds a sequence of edits to be made to the database, | |||
and these edits within the batch are applied in order. Note that we | |||
called <code>Delete</code> before <code>Put</code> so that if <code>key1</code> is identical to <code>key2</code>, | |||
we do not end up erroneously dropping the value entirely. | |||
<p> | |||
Apart from its atomicity benefits, <code>WriteBatch</code> may also be used to | |||
speed up bulk updates by placing lots of individual mutations into the | |||
same batch. | |||
<h1>Synchronous Writes</h1> | |||
By default, each write to <code>leveldb</code> is asynchronous: it | |||
returns after pushing the write from the process into the operating | |||
system. The transfer from operating system memory to the underlying | |||
persistent storage happens asynchronously. The <code>sync</code> flag | |||
can be turned on for a particular write to make the write operation | |||
not return until the data being written has been pushed all the way to | |||
persistent storage. (On Posix systems, this is implemented by calling | |||
either <code>fsync(...)</code> or <code>fdatasync(...)</code> or | |||
<code>msync(..., MS_SYNC)</code> before the write operation returns.) | |||
<pre> | |||
leveldb::WriteOptions write_options; | |||
write_options.sync = true; | |||
db->Put(write_options, ...); | |||
</pre> | |||
Asynchronous writes are often more than a thousand times as fast as | |||
synchronous writes. The downside of asynchronous writes is that a | |||
crash of the machine may cause the last few updates to be lost. Note | |||
that a crash of just the writing process (i.e., not a reboot) will not | |||
cause any loss since even when <code>sync</code> is false, an update | |||
is pushed from the process memory into the operating system before it | |||
is considered done. | |||
<p> | |||
Asynchronous writes can often be used safely. For example, when | |||
loading a large amount of data into the database you can handle lost | |||
updates by restarting the bulk load after a crash. A hybrid scheme is | |||
also possible where every Nth write is synchronous, and in the event | |||
of a crash, the bulk load is restarted just after the last synchronous | |||
write finished by the previous run. (The synchronous write can update | |||
a marker that describes where to restart on a crash.) | |||
<p> | |||
<code>WriteBatch</code> provides an alternative to asynchronous writes. | |||
Multiple updates may be placed in the same <code>WriteBatch</code> and | |||
applied together using a synchronous write (i.e., | |||
<code>write_options.sync</code> is set to true). The extra cost of | |||
the synchronous write will be amortized across all of the writes in | |||
the batch. | |||
<p> | |||
<h1>Concurrency</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
A database may only be opened by one process at a time. | |||
The <code>leveldb</code> implementation acquires a lock from the | |||
operating system to prevent misuse. Within a single process, the | |||
same <code>leveldb::DB</code> object may be safely shared by multiple | |||
concurrent threads. I.e., different threads may write into or fetch | |||
iterators or call <code>Get</code> on the same database without any | |||
external synchronization (the leveldb implementation will | |||
automatically do the required synchronization). However other objects | |||
(like Iterator and WriteBatch) may require external synchronization. | |||
If two threads share such an object, they must protect access to it | |||
using their own locking protocol. More details are available in | |||
the public header files. | |||
<p> | |||
<h1>Iteration</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
The following example demonstrates how to print all key,value pairs | |||
in a database. | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
leveldb::Iterator* it = db->NewIterator(leveldb::ReadOptions()); | |||
for (it->SeekToFirst(); it->Valid(); it->Next()) { | |||
cout << it->key().ToString() << ": " << it->value().ToString() << endl; | |||
} | |||
assert(it->status().ok()); // Check for any errors found during the scan | |||
delete it; | |||
</pre> | |||
The following variation shows how to process just the keys in the | |||
range <code>[start,limit)</code>: | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
for (it->Seek(start); | |||
it->Valid() && it->key().ToString() < limit; | |||
it->Next()) { | |||
... | |||
} | |||
</pre> | |||
You can also process entries in reverse order. (Caveat: reverse | |||
iteration may be somewhat slower than forward iteration.) | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
for (it->SeekToLast(); it->Valid(); it->Prev()) { | |||
... | |||
} | |||
</pre> | |||
<h1>Snapshots</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
Snapshots provide consistent read-only views over the entire state of | |||
the key-value store. <code>ReadOptions::snapshot</code> may be non-NULL to indicate | |||
that a read should operate on a particular version of the DB state. | |||
If <code>ReadOptions::snapshot</code> is NULL, the read will operate on an | |||
implicit snapshot of the current state. | |||
<p> | |||
Snapshots are created by the DB::GetSnapshot() method: | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
leveldb::ReadOptions options; | |||
options.snapshot = db->GetSnapshot(); | |||
... apply some updates to db ... | |||
leveldb::Iterator* iter = db->NewIterator(options); | |||
... read using iter to view the state when the snapshot was created ... | |||
delete iter; | |||
db->ReleaseSnapshot(options.snapshot); | |||
</pre> | |||
Note that when a snapshot is no longer needed, it should be released | |||
using the DB::ReleaseSnapshot interface. This allows the | |||
implementation to get rid of state that was being maintained just to | |||
support reading as of that snapshot. | |||
<h1>Slice</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
The return value of the <code>it->key()</code> and <code>it->value()</code> calls above | |||
are instances of the <code>leveldb::Slice</code> type. <code>Slice</code> is a simple | |||
structure that contains a length and a pointer to an external byte | |||
array. Returning a <code>Slice</code> is a cheaper alternative to returning a | |||
<code>std::string</code> since we do not need to copy potentially large keys and | |||
values. In addition, <code>leveldb</code> methods do not return null-terminated | |||
C-style strings since <code>leveldb</code> keys and values are allowed to | |||
contain '\0' bytes. | |||
<p> | |||
C++ strings and null-terminated C-style strings can be easily converted | |||
to a Slice: | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
leveldb::Slice s1 = "hello"; | |||
std::string str("world"); | |||
leveldb::Slice s2 = str; | |||
</pre> | |||
A Slice can be easily converted back to a C++ string: | |||
<pre> | |||
std::string str = s1.ToString(); | |||
assert(str == std::string("hello")); | |||
</pre> | |||
Be careful when using Slices since it is up to the caller to ensure that | |||
the external byte array into which the Slice points remains live while | |||
the Slice is in use. For example, the following is buggy: | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
leveldb::Slice slice; | |||
if (...) { | |||
std::string str = ...; | |||
slice = str; | |||
} | |||
Use(slice); | |||
</pre> | |||
When the <code>if</code> statement goes out of scope, <code>str</code> will be destroyed and the | |||
backing storage for <code>slice</code> will disappear. | |||
<p> | |||
<h1>Comparators</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
The preceding examples used the default ordering function for key, | |||
which orders bytes lexicographically. You can however supply a custom | |||
comparator when opening a database. For example, suppose each | |||
database key consists of two numbers and we should sort by the first | |||
number, breaking ties by the second number. First, define a proper | |||
subclass of <code>leveldb::Comparator</code> that expresses these rules: | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
class TwoPartComparator : public leveldb::Comparator { | |||
public: | |||
// Three-way comparison function: | |||
// if a < b: negative result | |||
// if a > b: positive result | |||
// else: zero result | |||
int Compare(const leveldb::Slice& a, const leveldb::Slice& b) const { | |||
int a1, a2, b1, b2; | |||
ParseKey(a, &a1, &a2); | |||
ParseKey(b, &b1, &b2); | |||
if (a1 < b1) return -1; | |||
if (a1 > b1) return +1; | |||
if (a2 < b2) return -1; | |||
if (a2 > b2) return +1; | |||
return 0; | |||
} | |||
// Ignore the following methods for now: | |||
const char* Name() const { return "TwoPartComparator"; } | |||
void FindShortestSeparator(std::string*, const leveldb::Slice&) const { } | |||
void FindShortSuccessor(std::string*) const { } | |||
}; | |||
</pre> | |||
Now create a database using this custom comparator: | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
TwoPartComparator cmp; | |||
leveldb::DB* db; | |||
leveldb::Options options; | |||
options.create_if_missing = true; | |||
options.comparator = &cmp; | |||
leveldb::Status status = leveldb::DB::Open(options, "/tmp/testdb", &db); | |||
... | |||
</pre> | |||
<h2>Backwards compatibility</h2> | |||
<p> | |||
The result of the comparator's <code>Name</code> method is attached to the | |||
database when it is created, and is checked on every subsequent | |||
database open. If the name changes, the <code>leveldb::DB::Open</code> call will | |||
fail. Therefore, change the name if and only if the new key format | |||
and comparison function are incompatible with existing databases, and | |||
it is ok to discard the contents of all existing databases. | |||
<p> | |||
You can however still gradually evolve your key format over time with | |||
a little bit of pre-planning. For example, you could store a version | |||
number at the end of each key (one byte should suffice for most uses). | |||
When you wish to switch to a new key format (e.g., adding an optional | |||
third part to the keys processed by <code>TwoPartComparator</code>), | |||
(a) keep the same comparator name (b) increment the version number | |||
for new keys (c) change the comparator function so it uses the | |||
version numbers found in the keys to decide how to interpret them. | |||
<p> | |||
<h1>Performance</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
Performance can be tuned by changing the default values of the | |||
types defined in <code>include/leveldb/options.h</code>. | |||
<p> | |||
<h2>Block size</h2> | |||
<p> | |||
<code>leveldb</code> groups adjacent keys together into the same block and such a | |||
block is the unit of transfer to and from persistent storage. The | |||
default block size is approximately 4096 uncompressed bytes. | |||
Applications that mostly do bulk scans over the contents of the | |||
database may wish to increase this size. Applications that do a lot | |||
of point reads of small values may wish to switch to a smaller block | |||
size if performance measurements indicate an improvement. There isn't | |||
much benefit in using blocks smaller than one kilobyte, or larger than | |||
a few megabytes. Also note that compression will be more effective | |||
with larger block sizes. | |||
<p> | |||
<h2>Compression</h2> | |||
<p> | |||
Each block is individually compressed before being written to | |||
persistent storage. Compression is on by default since the default | |||
compression method is very fast, and is automatically disabled for | |||
uncompressible data. In rare cases, applications may want to disable | |||
compression entirely, but should only do so if benchmarks show a | |||
performance improvement: | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
leveldb::Options options; | |||
options.compression = leveldb::kNoCompression; | |||
... leveldb::DB::Open(options, name, ...) .... | |||
</pre> | |||
<h2>Cache</h2> | |||
<p> | |||
The contents of the database are stored in a set of files in the | |||
filesystem and each file stores a sequence of compressed blocks. If | |||
<code>options.cache</code> is non-NULL, it is used to cache frequently used | |||
uncompressed block contents. | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
#include "leveldb/cache.h" | |||
leveldb::Options options; | |||
options.cache = leveldb::NewLRUCache(100 * 1048576); // 100MB cache | |||
leveldb::DB* db; | |||
leveldb::DB::Open(options, name, &db); | |||
... use the db ... | |||
delete db | |||
delete options.cache; | |||
</pre> | |||
Note that the cache holds uncompressed data, and therefore it should | |||
be sized according to application level data sizes, without any | |||
reduction from compression. (Caching of compressed blocks is left to | |||
the operating system buffer cache, or any custom <code>Env</code> | |||
implementation provided by the client.) | |||
<p> | |||
When performing a bulk read, the application may wish to disable | |||
caching so that the data processed by the bulk read does not end up | |||
displacing most of the cached contents. A per-iterator option can be | |||
used to achieve this: | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
leveldb::ReadOptions options; | |||
options.fill_cache = false; | |||
leveldb::Iterator* it = db->NewIterator(options); | |||
for (it->SeekToFirst(); it->Valid(); it->Next()) { | |||
... | |||
} | |||
</pre> | |||
<h2>Key Layout</h2> | |||
<p> | |||
Note that the unit of disk transfer and caching is a block. Adjacent | |||
keys (according to the database sort order) will usually be placed in | |||
the same block. Therefore the application can improve its performance | |||
by placing keys that are accessed together near each other and placing | |||
infrequently used keys in a separate region of the key space. | |||
<p> | |||
For example, suppose we are implementing a simple file system on top | |||
of <code>leveldb</code>. The types of entries we might wish to store are: | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
filename -> permission-bits, length, list of file_block_ids | |||
file_block_id -> data | |||
</pre> | |||
We might want to prefix <code>filename</code> keys with one letter (say '/') and the | |||
<code>file_block_id</code> keys with a different letter (say '0') so that scans | |||
over just the metadata do not force us to fetch and cache bulky file | |||
contents. | |||
<p> | |||
<h2>Filters</h2> | |||
<p> | |||
Because of the way <code>leveldb</code> data is organized on disk, | |||
a single <code>Get()</code> call may involve multiple reads from disk. | |||
The optional <code>FilterPolicy</code> mechanism can be used to reduce | |||
the number of disk reads substantially. | |||
<pre> | |||
leveldb::Options options; | |||
options.filter_policy = NewBloomFilterPolicy(10); | |||
leveldb::DB* db; | |||
leveldb::DB::Open(options, "/tmp/testdb", &db); | |||
... use the database ... | |||
delete db; | |||
delete options.filter_policy; | |||
</pre> | |||
The preceding code associates a | |||
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom_filter">Bloom filter</a> | |||
based filtering policy with the database. Bloom filter based | |||
filtering relies on keeping some number of bits of data in memory per | |||
key (in this case 10 bits per key since that is the argument we passed | |||
to NewBloomFilterPolicy). This filter will reduce the number of unnecessary | |||
disk reads needed for <code>Get()</code> calls by a factor of | |||
approximately a 100. Increasing the bits per key will lead to a | |||
larger reduction at the cost of more memory usage. We recommend that | |||
applications whose working set does not fit in memory and that do a | |||
lot of random reads set a filter policy. | |||
<p> | |||
If you are using a custom comparator, you should ensure that the filter | |||
policy you are using is compatible with your comparator. For example, | |||
consider a comparator that ignores trailing spaces when comparing keys. | |||
<code>NewBloomFilterPolicy</code> must not be used with such a comparator. | |||
Instead, the application should provide a custom filter policy that | |||
also ignores trailing spaces. For example: | |||
<pre> | |||
class CustomFilterPolicy : public leveldb::FilterPolicy { | |||
private: | |||
FilterPolicy* builtin_policy_; | |||
public: | |||
CustomFilterPolicy() : builtin_policy_(NewBloomFilterPolicy(10)) { } | |||
~CustomFilterPolicy() { delete builtin_policy_; } | |||
const char* Name() const { return "IgnoreTrailingSpacesFilter"; } | |||
void CreateFilter(const Slice* keys, int n, std::string* dst) const { | |||
// Use builtin bloom filter code after removing trailing spaces | |||
std::vector<Slice> trimmed(n); | |||
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) { | |||
trimmed[i] = RemoveTrailingSpaces(keys[i]); | |||
} | |||
return builtin_policy_->CreateFilter(&trimmed[i], n, dst); | |||
} | |||
bool KeyMayMatch(const Slice& key, const Slice& filter) const { | |||
// Use builtin bloom filter code after removing trailing spaces | |||
return builtin_policy_->KeyMayMatch(RemoveTrailingSpaces(key), filter); | |||
} | |||
}; | |||
</pre> | |||
<p> | |||
Advanced applications may provide a filter policy that does not use | |||
a bloom filter but uses some other mechanism for summarizing a set | |||
of keys. See <code>leveldb/filter_policy.h</code> for detail. | |||
<p> | |||
<h1>Checksums</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
<code>leveldb</code> associates checksums with all data it stores in the file system. | |||
There are two separate controls provided over how aggressively these | |||
checksums are verified: | |||
<p> | |||
<ul> | |||
<li> <code>ReadOptions::verify_checksums</code> may be set to true to force | |||
checksum verification of all data that is read from the file system on | |||
behalf of a particular read. By default, no such verification is | |||
done. | |||
<p> | |||
<li> <code>Options::paranoid_checks</code> may be set to true before opening a | |||
database to make the database implementation raise an error as soon as | |||
it detects an internal corruption. Depending on which portion of the | |||
database has been corrupted, the error may be raised when the database | |||
is opened, or later by another database operation. By default, | |||
paranoid checking is off so that the database can be used even if | |||
parts of its persistent storage have been corrupted. | |||
<p> | |||
If a database is corrupted (perhaps it cannot be opened when | |||
paranoid checking is turned on), the <code>leveldb::RepairDB</code> function | |||
may be used to recover as much of the data as possible | |||
<p> | |||
</ul> | |||
<h1>Approximate Sizes</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
The <code>GetApproximateSizes</code> method can used to get the approximate | |||
number of bytes of file system space used by one or more key ranges. | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
leveldb::Range ranges[2]; | |||
ranges[0] = leveldb::Range("a", "c"); | |||
ranges[1] = leveldb::Range("x", "z"); | |||
uint64_t sizes[2]; | |||
leveldb::Status s = db->GetApproximateSizes(ranges, 2, sizes); | |||
</pre> | |||
The preceding call will set <code>sizes[0]</code> to the approximate number of | |||
bytes of file system space used by the key range <code>[a..c)</code> and | |||
<code>sizes[1]</code> to the approximate number of bytes used by the key range | |||
<code>[x..z)</code>. | |||
<p> | |||
<h1>Environment</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
All file operations (and other operating system calls) issued by the | |||
<code>leveldb</code> implementation are routed through a <code>leveldb::Env</code> object. | |||
Sophisticated clients may wish to provide their own <code>Env</code> | |||
implementation to get better control. For example, an application may | |||
introduce artificial delays in the file IO paths to limit the impact | |||
of <code>leveldb</code> on other activities in the system. | |||
<p> | |||
<pre> | |||
class SlowEnv : public leveldb::Env { | |||
.. implementation of the Env interface ... | |||
}; | |||
SlowEnv env; | |||
leveldb::Options options; | |||
options.env = &env; | |||
Status s = leveldb::DB::Open(options, ...); | |||
</pre> | |||
<h1>Porting</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
<code>leveldb</code> may be ported to a new platform by providing platform | |||
specific implementations of the types/methods/functions exported by | |||
<code>leveldb/port/port.h</code>. See <code>leveldb/port/port_example.h</code> for more | |||
details. | |||
<p> | |||
In addition, the new platform may need a new default <code>leveldb::Env</code> | |||
implementation. See <code>leveldb/util/env_posix.h</code> for an example. | |||
<h1>Other Information</h1> | |||
<p> | |||
Details about the <code>leveldb</code> implementation may be found in | |||
the following documents: | |||
<ul> | |||
<li> <a href="impl.html">Implementation notes</a> | |||
<li> <a href="table_format.txt">Format of an immutable Table file</a> | |||
<li> <a href="log_format.txt">Format of a log file</a> | |||
</ul> | |||
</body> | |||
</html> |
@ -0,0 +1,523 @@ | |||
leveldb | |||
======= | |||
_Jeff Dean, Sanjay Ghemawat_ | |||
The leveldb library provides a persistent key value store. Keys and values are | |||
arbitrary byte arrays. The keys are ordered within the key value store | |||
according to a user-specified comparator function. | |||
## Opening A Database | |||
A leveldb database has a name which corresponds to a file system directory. All | |||
of the contents of database are stored in this directory. The following example | |||
shows how to open a database, creating it if necessary: | |||
```c++ | |||
#include <cassert> | |||
#include "leveldb/db.h" | |||
leveldb::DB* db; | |||
leveldb::Options options; | |||
options.create_if_missing = true; | |||
leveldb::Status status = leveldb::DB::Open(options, "/tmp/testdb", &db); | |||
assert(status.ok()); | |||
... | |||
``` | |||
If you want to raise an error if the database already exists, add the following | |||
line before the `leveldb::DB::Open` call: | |||
```c++ | |||
options.error_if_exists = true; | |||
``` | |||
## Status | |||
You may have noticed the `leveldb::Status` type above. Values of this type are | |||
returned by most functions in leveldb that may encounter an error. You can check | |||
if such a result is ok, and also print an associated error message: | |||
```c++ | |||
leveldb::Status s = ...; | |||
if (!s.ok()) cerr << s.ToString() << endl; | |||
``` | |||
## Closing A Database | |||
When you are done with a database, just delete the database object. Example: | |||
```c++ | |||
... open the db as described above ... | |||
... do something with db ... | |||
delete db; | |||
``` | |||
## Reads And Writes | |||
The database provides Put, Delete, and Get methods to modify/query the database. | |||
For example, the following code moves the value stored under key1 to key2. | |||
```c++ | |||
std::string value; | |||
leveldb::Status s = db->Get(leveldb::ReadOptions(), key1, &value); | |||
if (s.ok()) s = db->Put(leveldb::WriteOptions(), key2, value); | |||
if (s.ok()) s = db->Delete(leveldb::WriteOptions(), key1); | |||
``` | |||
## Atomic Updates | |||
Note that if the process dies after the Put of key2 but before the delete of | |||
key1, the same value may be left stored under multiple keys. Such problems can | |||
be avoided by using the `WriteBatch` class to atomically apply a set of updates: | |||
```c++ | |||
#include "leveldb/write_batch.h" | |||
... | |||
std::string value; | |||
leveldb::Status s = db->Get(leveldb::ReadOptions(), key1, &value); | |||
if (s.ok()) { | |||
leveldb::WriteBatch batch; | |||
batch.Delete(key1); | |||
batch.Put(key2, value); | |||
s = db->Write(leveldb::WriteOptions(), &batch); | |||
} | |||
``` | |||
The `WriteBatch` holds a sequence of edits to be made to the database, and these | |||
edits within the batch are applied in order. Note that we called Delete before | |||
Put so that if key1 is identical to key2, we do not end up erroneously dropping | |||
the value entirely. | |||
Apart from its atomicity benefits, `WriteBatch` may also be used to speed up | |||
bulk updates by placing lots of individual mutations into the same batch. | |||
## Synchronous Writes | |||
By default, each write to leveldb is asynchronous: it returns after pushing the | |||
write from the process into the operating system. The transfer from operating | |||
system memory to the underlying persistent storage happens asynchronously. The | |||
sync flag can be turned on for a particular write to make the write operation | |||
not return until the data being written has been pushed all the way to | |||
persistent storage. (On Posix systems, this is implemented by calling either | |||
`fsync(...)` or `fdatasync(...)` or `msync(..., MS_SYNC)` before the write | |||
operation returns.) | |||
```c++ | |||
leveldb::WriteOptions write_options; | |||
write_options.sync = true; | |||
db->Put(write_options, ...); | |||
``` | |||
Asynchronous writes are often more than a thousand times as fast as synchronous | |||
writes. The downside of asynchronous writes is that a crash of the machine may | |||
cause the last few updates to be lost. Note that a crash of just the writing | |||
process (i.e., not a reboot) will not cause any loss since even when sync is | |||
false, an update is pushed from the process memory into the operating system | |||
before it is considered done. | |||
Asynchronous writes can often be used safely. For example, when loading a large | |||
amount of data into the database you can handle lost updates by restarting the | |||
bulk load after a crash. A hybrid scheme is also possible where every Nth write | |||
is synchronous, and in the event of a crash, the bulk load is restarted just | |||
after the last synchronous write finished by the previous run. (The synchronous | |||
write can update a marker that describes where to restart on a crash.) | |||
`WriteBatch` provides an alternative to asynchronous writes. Multiple updates | |||
may be placed in the same WriteBatch and applied together using a synchronous | |||
write (i.e., `write_options.sync` is set to true). The extra cost of the | |||
synchronous write will be amortized across all of the writes in the batch. | |||
## Concurrency | |||
A database may only be opened by one process at a time. The leveldb | |||
implementation acquires a lock from the operating system to prevent misuse. | |||
Within a single process, the same `leveldb::DB` object may be safely shared by | |||
multiple concurrent threads. I.e., different threads may write into or fetch | |||
iterators or call Get on the same database without any external synchronization | |||
(the leveldb implementation will automatically do the required synchronization). | |||
However other objects (like Iterator and `WriteBatch`) may require external | |||
synchronization. If two threads share such an object, they must protect access | |||
to it using their own locking protocol. More details are available in the public | |||
header files. | |||
## Iteration | |||
The following example demonstrates how to print all key,value pairs in a | |||
database. | |||
```c++ | |||
leveldb::Iterator* it = db->NewIterator(leveldb::ReadOptions()); | |||
for (it->SeekToFirst(); it->Valid(); it->Next()) { | |||
cout << it->key().ToString() << ": " << it->value().ToString() << endl; | |||
} | |||
assert(it->status().ok()); // Check for any errors found during the scan | |||
delete it; | |||
``` | |||
The following variation shows how to process just the keys in the range | |||
[start,limit): | |||
```c++ | |||
for (it->Seek(start); | |||
it->Valid() && it->key().ToString() < limit; | |||
it->Next()) { | |||
... | |||
} | |||
``` | |||
You can also process entries in reverse order. (Caveat: reverse iteration may be | |||
somewhat slower than forward iteration.) | |||
```c++ | |||
for (it->SeekToLast(); it->Valid(); it->Prev()) { | |||
... | |||
} | |||
``` | |||
## Snapshots | |||
Snapshots provide consistent read-only views over the entire state of the | |||
key-value store. `ReadOptions::snapshot` may be non-NULL to indicate that a | |||
read should operate on a particular version of the DB state. If | |||
`ReadOptions::snapshot` is NULL, the read will operate on an implicit snapshot | |||
of the current state. | |||
Snapshots are created by the `DB::GetSnapshot()` method: | |||
```c++ | |||
leveldb::ReadOptions options; | |||
options.snapshot = db->GetSnapshot(); | |||
... apply some updates to db ... | |||
leveldb::Iterator* iter = db->NewIterator(options); | |||
... read using iter to view the state when the snapshot was created ... | |||
delete iter; | |||
db->ReleaseSnapshot(options.snapshot); | |||
``` | |||
Note that when a snapshot is no longer needed, it should be released using the | |||
`DB::ReleaseSnapshot` interface. This allows the implementation to get rid of | |||
state that was being maintained just to support reading as of that snapshot. | |||
## Slice | |||
The return value of the `it->key()` and `it->value()` calls above are instances | |||
of the `leveldb::Slice` type. Slice is a simple structure that contains a length | |||
and a pointer to an external byte array. Returning a Slice is a cheaper | |||
alternative to returning a `std::string` since we do not need to copy | |||
potentially large keys and values. In addition, leveldb methods do not return | |||
null-terminated C-style strings since leveldb keys and values are allowed to | |||
contain `'\0'` bytes. | |||
C++ strings and null-terminated C-style strings can be easily converted to a | |||
Slice: | |||
```c++ | |||
leveldb::Slice s1 = "hello"; | |||
std::string str("world"); | |||
leveldb::Slice s2 = str; | |||
``` | |||
A Slice can be easily converted back to a C++ string: | |||
```c++ | |||
std::string str = s1.ToString(); | |||
assert(str == std::string("hello")); | |||
``` | |||
Be careful when using Slices since it is up to the caller to ensure that the | |||
external byte array into which the Slice points remains live while the Slice is | |||
in use. For example, the following is buggy: | |||
```c++ | |||
leveldb::Slice slice; | |||
if (...) { | |||
std::string str = ...; | |||
slice = str; | |||
} | |||
Use(slice); | |||
``` | |||
When the if statement goes out of scope, str will be destroyed and the backing | |||
storage for slice will disappear. | |||
## Comparators | |||
The preceding examples used the default ordering function for key, which orders | |||
bytes lexicographically. You can however supply a custom comparator when opening | |||
a database. For example, suppose each database key consists of two numbers and | |||
we should sort by the first number, breaking ties by the second number. First, | |||
define a proper subclass of `leveldb::Comparator` that expresses these rules: | |||
```c++ | |||
class TwoPartComparator : public leveldb::Comparator { | |||
public: | |||
// Three-way comparison function: | |||
// if a < b: negative result | |||
// if a > b: positive result | |||
// else: zero result | |||
int Compare(const leveldb::Slice& a, const leveldb::Slice& b) const { | |||
int a1, a2, b1, b2; | |||
ParseKey(a, &a1, &a2); | |||
ParseKey(b, &b1, &b2); | |||
if (a1 < b1) return -1; | |||
if (a1 > b1) return +1; | |||
if (a2 < b2) return -1; | |||
if (a2 > b2) return +1; | |||
return 0; | |||
} | |||
// Ignore the following methods for now: | |||
const char* Name() const { return "TwoPartComparator"; } | |||
void FindShortestSeparator(std::string*, const leveldb::Slice&) const {} | |||
void FindShortSuccessor(std::string*) const {} | |||
}; | |||
``` | |||
Now create a database using this custom comparator: | |||
```c++ | |||
TwoPartComparator cmp; | |||
leveldb::DB* db; | |||
leveldb::Options options; | |||
options.create_if_missing = true; | |||
options.comparator = &cmp; | |||
leveldb::Status status = leveldb::DB::Open(options, "/tmp/testdb", &db); | |||
... | |||
``` | |||
### Backwards compatibility | |||
The result of the comparator's Name method is attached to the database when it | |||
is created, and is checked on every subsequent database open. If the name | |||
changes, the `leveldb::DB::Open` call will fail. Therefore, change the name if | |||
and only if the new key format and comparison function are incompatible with | |||
existing databases, and it is ok to discard the contents of all existing | |||
databases. | |||
You can however still gradually evolve your key format over time with a little | |||
bit of pre-planning. For example, you could store a version number at the end of | |||
each key (one byte should suffice for most uses). When you wish to switch to a | |||
new key format (e.g., adding an optional third part to the keys processed by | |||
`TwoPartComparator`), (a) keep the same comparator name (b) increment the | |||
version number for new keys (c) change the comparator function so it uses the | |||
version numbers found in the keys to decide how to interpret them. | |||
## Performance | |||
Performance can be tuned by changing the default values of the types defined in | |||
`include/leveldb/options.h`. | |||
### Block size | |||
leveldb groups adjacent keys together into the same block and such a block is | |||
the unit of transfer to and from persistent storage. The default block size is | |||
approximately 4096 uncompressed bytes. Applications that mostly do bulk scans | |||
over the contents of the database may wish to increase this size. Applications | |||
that do a lot of point reads of small values may wish to switch to a smaller | |||
block size if performance measurements indicate an improvement. There isn't much | |||
benefit in using blocks smaller than one kilobyte, or larger than a few | |||
megabytes. Also note that compression will be more effective with larger block | |||
sizes. | |||
### Compression | |||
Each block is individually compressed before being written to persistent | |||
storage. Compression is on by default since the default compression method is | |||
very fast, and is automatically disabled for uncompressible data. In rare cases, | |||
applications may want to disable compression entirely, but should only do so if | |||
benchmarks show a performance improvement: | |||
```c++ | |||
leveldb::Options options; | |||
options.compression = leveldb::kNoCompression; | |||
... leveldb::DB::Open(options, name, ...) .... | |||
``` | |||
### Cache | |||
The contents of the database are stored in a set of files in the filesystem and | |||
each file stores a sequence of compressed blocks. If options.cache is non-NULL, | |||
it is used to cache frequently used uncompressed block contents. | |||
```c++ | |||
#include "leveldb/cache.h" | |||
leveldb::Options options; | |||
options.cache = leveldb::NewLRUCache(100 * 1048576); // 100MB cache | |||
leveldb::DB* db; | |||
leveldb::DB::Open(options, name, &db); | |||
... use the db ... | |||
delete db | |||
delete options.cache; | |||
``` | |||
Note that the cache holds uncompressed data, and therefore it should be sized | |||
according to application level data sizes, without any reduction from | |||
compression. (Caching of compressed blocks is left to the operating system | |||
buffer cache, or any custom Env implementation provided by the client.) | |||
When performing a bulk read, the application may wish to disable caching so that | |||
the data processed by the bulk read does not end up displacing most of the | |||
cached contents. A per-iterator option can be used to achieve this: | |||
```c++ | |||
leveldb::ReadOptions options; | |||
options.fill_cache = false; | |||
leveldb::Iterator* it = db->NewIterator(options); | |||
for (it->SeekToFirst(); it->Valid(); it->Next()) { | |||
... | |||
} | |||
``` | |||
### Key Layout | |||
Note that the unit of disk transfer and caching is a block. Adjacent keys | |||
(according to the database sort order) will usually be placed in the same block. | |||
Therefore the application can improve its performance by placing keys that are | |||
accessed together near each other and placing infrequently used keys in a | |||
separate region of the key space. | |||
For example, suppose we are implementing a simple file system on top of leveldb. | |||
The types of entries we might wish to store are: | |||
filename -> permission-bits, length, list of file_block_ids | |||
file_block_id -> data | |||
We might want to prefix filename keys with one letter (say '/') and the | |||
`file_block_id` keys with a different letter (say '0') so that scans over just | |||
the metadata do not force us to fetch and cache bulky file contents. | |||
### Filters | |||
Because of the way leveldb data is organized on disk, a single `Get()` call may | |||
involve multiple reads from disk. The optional FilterPolicy mechanism can be | |||
used to reduce the number of disk reads substantially. | |||
```c++ | |||
leveldb::Options options; | |||
options.filter_policy = NewBloomFilterPolicy(10); | |||
leveldb::DB* db; | |||
leveldb::DB::Open(options, "/tmp/testdb", &db); | |||
... use the database ... | |||
delete db; | |||
delete options.filter_policy; | |||
``` | |||
The preceding code associates a Bloom filter based filtering policy with the | |||
database. Bloom filter based filtering relies on keeping some number of bits of | |||
data in memory per key (in this case 10 bits per key since that is the argument | |||
we passed to `NewBloomFilterPolicy`). This filter will reduce the number of | |||
unnecessary disk reads needed for Get() calls by a factor of approximately | |||
a 100. Increasing the bits per key will lead to a larger reduction at the cost | |||
of more memory usage. We recommend that applications whose working set does not | |||
fit in memory and that do a lot of random reads set a filter policy. | |||
If you are using a custom comparator, you should ensure that the filter policy | |||
you are using is compatible with your comparator. For example, consider a | |||
comparator that ignores trailing spaces when comparing keys. | |||
`NewBloomFilterPolicy` must not be used with such a comparator. Instead, the | |||
application should provide a custom filter policy that also ignores trailing | |||
spaces. For example: | |||
```c++ | |||
class CustomFilterPolicy : public leveldb::FilterPolicy { | |||
private: | |||
FilterPolicy* builtin_policy_; | |||
public: | |||
CustomFilterPolicy() : builtin_policy_(NewBloomFilterPolicy(10)) {} | |||
~CustomFilterPolicy() { delete builtin_policy_; } | |||
const char* Name() const { return "IgnoreTrailingSpacesFilter"; } | |||
void CreateFilter(const Slice* keys, int n, std::string* dst) const { | |||
// Use builtin bloom filter code after removing trailing spaces | |||
std::vector<Slice> trimmed(n); | |||
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) { | |||
trimmed[i] = RemoveTrailingSpaces(keys[i]); | |||
} | |||
return builtin_policy_->CreateFilter(&trimmed[i], n, dst); | |||
} | |||
}; | |||
``` | |||
Advanced applications may provide a filter policy that does not use a bloom | |||
filter but uses some other mechanism for summarizing a set of keys. See | |||
`leveldb/filter_policy.h` for detail. | |||
## Checksums | |||
leveldb associates checksums with all data it stores in the file system. There | |||
are two separate controls provided over how aggressively these checksums are | |||
verified: | |||
`ReadOptions::verify_checksums` may be set to true to force checksum | |||
verification of all data that is read from the file system on behalf of a | |||
particular read. By default, no such verification is done. | |||
`Options::paranoid_checks` may be set to true before opening a database to make | |||
the database implementation raise an error as soon as it detects an internal | |||
corruption. Depending on which portion of the database has been corrupted, the | |||
error may be raised when the database is opened, or later by another database | |||
operation. By default, paranoid checking is off so that the database can be used | |||
even if parts of its persistent storage have been corrupted. | |||
If a database is corrupted (perhaps it cannot be opened when paranoid checking | |||
is turned on), the `leveldb::RepairDB` function may be used to recover as much | |||
of the data as possible | |||
## Approximate Sizes | |||
The `GetApproximateSizes` method can used to get the approximate number of bytes | |||
of file system space used by one or more key ranges. | |||
```c++ | |||
leveldb::Range ranges[2]; | |||
ranges[0] = leveldb::Range("a", "c"); | |||
ranges[1] = leveldb::Range("x", "z"); | |||
uint64_t sizes[2]; | |||
leveldb::Status s = db->GetApproximateSizes(ranges, 2, sizes); | |||
``` | |||
The preceding call will set `sizes[0]` to the approximate number of bytes of | |||
file system space used by the key range `[a..c)` and `sizes[1]` to the | |||
approximate number of bytes used by the key range `[x..z)`. | |||
## Environment | |||
All file operations (and other operating system calls) issued by the leveldb | |||
implementation are routed through a `leveldb::Env` object. Sophisticated clients | |||
may wish to provide their own Env implementation to get better control. | |||
For example, an application may introduce artificial delays in the file IO | |||
paths to limit the impact of leveldb on other activities in the system. | |||
```c++ | |||
class SlowEnv : public leveldb::Env { | |||
... implementation of the Env interface ... | |||
}; | |||
SlowEnv env; | |||
leveldb::Options options; | |||
options.env = &env; | |||
Status s = leveldb::DB::Open(options, ...); | |||
``` | |||
## Porting | |||
leveldb may be ported to a new platform by providing platform specific | |||
implementations of the types/methods/functions exported by | |||
`leveldb/port/port.h`. See `leveldb/port/port_example.h` for more details. | |||
In addition, the new platform may need a new default `leveldb::Env` | |||
implementation. See `leveldb/util/env_posix.h` for an example. | |||
## Other Information | |||
Details about the leveldb implementation may be found in the following | |||
documents: | |||
1. [Implementation notes](impl.md) | |||
2. [Format of an immutable Table file](table_format.md) | |||
3. [Format of a log file](log_format.md) |
@ -0,0 +1,75 @@ | |||
leveldb Log format | |||
================== | |||
The log file contents are a sequence of 32KB blocks. The only exception is that | |||
the tail of the file may contain a partial block. | |||
Each block consists of a sequence of records: | |||
block := record* trailer? | |||
record := | |||
checksum: uint32 // crc32c of type and data[] ; little-endian | |||
length: uint16 // little-endian | |||
type: uint8 // One of FULL, FIRST, MIDDLE, LAST | |||
data: uint8[length] | |||
A record never starts within the last six bytes of a block (since it won't fit). | |||
Any leftover bytes here form the trailer, which must consist entirely of zero | |||
bytes and must be skipped by readers. | |||
Aside: if exactly seven bytes are left in the current block, and a new non-zero | |||
length record is added, the writer must emit a FIRST record (which contains zero | |||
bytes of user data) to fill up the trailing seven bytes of the block and then | |||
emit all of the user data in subsequent blocks. | |||
More types may be added in the future. Some Readers may skip record types they | |||
do not understand, others may report that some data was skipped. | |||
FULL == 1 | |||
FIRST == 2 | |||
MIDDLE == 3 | |||
LAST == 4 | |||
The FULL record contains the contents of an entire user record. | |||
FIRST, MIDDLE, LAST are types used for user records that have been split into | |||
multiple fragments (typically because of block boundaries). FIRST is the type | |||
of the first fragment of a user record, LAST is the type of the last fragment of | |||
a user record, and MIDDLE is the type of all interior fragments of a user | |||
record. | |||
Example: consider a sequence of user records: | |||
A: length 1000 | |||
B: length 97270 | |||
C: length 8000 | |||
**A** will be stored as a FULL record in the first block. | |||
**B** will be split into three fragments: first fragment occupies the rest of | |||
the first block, second fragment occupies the entirety of the second block, and | |||
the third fragment occupies a prefix of the third block. This will leave six | |||
bytes free in the third block, which will be left empty as the trailer. | |||
**C** will be stored as a FULL record in the fourth block. | |||
---- | |||
## Some benefits over the recordio format: | |||
1. We do not need any heuristics for resyncing - just go to next block boundary | |||
and scan. If there is a corruption, skip to the next block. As a | |||
side-benefit, we do not get confused when part of the contents of one log | |||
file are embedded as a record inside another log file. | |||
2. Splitting at approximate boundaries (e.g., for mapreduce) is simple: find the | |||
next block boundary and skip records until we hit a FULL or FIRST record. | |||
3. We do not need extra buffering for large records. | |||
## Some downsides compared to recordio format: | |||
1. No packing of tiny records. This could be fixed by adding a new record type, | |||
so it is a shortcoming of the current implementation, not necessarily the | |||
format. | |||
2. No compression. Again, this could be fixed by adding new record types. |
@ -1,75 +0,0 @@ | |||
The log file contents are a sequence of 32KB blocks. The only | |||
exception is that the tail of the file may contain a partial block. | |||
Each block consists of a sequence of records: | |||
block := record* trailer? | |||
record := | |||
checksum: uint32 // crc32c of type and data[] ; little-endian | |||
length: uint16 // little-endian | |||
type: uint8 // One of FULL, FIRST, MIDDLE, LAST | |||
data: uint8[length] | |||
A record never starts within the last six bytes of a block (since it | |||
won't fit). Any leftover bytes here form the trailer, which must | |||
consist entirely of zero bytes and must be skipped by readers. | |||
Aside: if exactly seven bytes are left in the current block, and a new | |||
non-zero length record is added, the writer must emit a FIRST record | |||
(which contains zero bytes of user data) to fill up the trailing seven | |||
bytes of the block and then emit all of the user data in subsequent | |||
blocks. | |||
More types may be added in the future. Some Readers may skip record | |||
types they do not understand, others may report that some data was | |||
skipped. | |||
FULL == 1 | |||
FIRST == 2 | |||
MIDDLE == 3 | |||
LAST == 4 | |||
The FULL record contains the contents of an entire user record. | |||
FIRST, MIDDLE, LAST are types used for user records that have been | |||
split into multiple fragments (typically because of block boundaries). | |||
FIRST is the type of the first fragment of a user record, LAST is the | |||
type of the last fragment of a user record, and MIDDLE is the type of | |||
all interior fragments of a user record. | |||
Example: consider a sequence of user records: | |||
A: length 1000 | |||
B: length 97270 | |||
C: length 8000 | |||
A will be stored as a FULL record in the first block. | |||
B will be split into three fragments: first fragment occupies the rest | |||
of the first block, second fragment occupies the entirety of the | |||
second block, and the third fragment occupies a prefix of the third | |||
block. This will leave six bytes free in the third block, which will | |||
be left empty as the trailer. | |||
C will be stored as a FULL record in the fourth block. | |||
=================== | |||
Some benefits over the recordio format: | |||
(1) We do not need any heuristics for resyncing - just go to next | |||
block boundary and scan. If there is a corruption, skip to the next | |||
block. As a side-benefit, we do not get confused when part of the | |||
contents of one log file are embedded as a record inside another log | |||
file. | |||
(2) Splitting at approximate boundaries (e.g., for mapreduce) is | |||
simple: find the next block boundary and skip records until we | |||
hit a FULL or FIRST record. | |||
(3) We do not need extra buffering for large records. | |||
Some downsides compared to recordio format: | |||
(1) No packing of tiny records. This could be fixed by adding a new | |||
record type, so it is a shortcoming of the current implementation, | |||
not necessarily the format. | |||
(2) No compression. Again, this could be fixed by adding new record types. |
@ -0,0 +1,107 @@ | |||
leveldb File format | |||
=================== | |||
<beginning_of_file> | |||
[data block 1] | |||
[data block 2] | |||
... | |||
[data block N] | |||
[meta block 1] | |||
... | |||
[meta block K] | |||
[metaindex block] | |||
[index block] | |||
[Footer] (fixed size; starts at file_size - sizeof(Footer)) | |||
<end_of_file> | |||
The file contains internal pointers. Each such pointer is called | |||
a BlockHandle and contains the following information: | |||
offset: varint64 | |||
size: varint64 | |||
See [varints](https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/encoding#varints) | |||
for an explanation of varint64 format. | |||
1. The sequence of key/value pairs in the file are stored in sorted | |||
order and partitioned into a sequence of data blocks. These blocks | |||
come one after another at the beginning of the file. Each data block | |||
is formatted according to the code in `block_builder.cc`, and then | |||
optionally compressed. | |||
2. After the data blocks we store a bunch of meta blocks. The | |||
supported meta block types are described below. More meta block types | |||
may be added in the future. Each meta block is again formatted using | |||
`block_builder.cc` and then optionally compressed. | |||
3. A "metaindex" block. It contains one entry for every other meta | |||
block where the key is the name of the meta block and the value is a | |||
BlockHandle pointing to that meta block. | |||
4. An "index" block. This block contains one entry per data block, | |||
where the key is a string >= last key in that data block and before | |||
the first key in the successive data block. The value is the | |||
BlockHandle for the data block. | |||
5. At the very end of the file is a fixed length footer that contains | |||
the BlockHandle of the metaindex and index blocks as well as a magic number. | |||
metaindex_handle: char[p]; // Block handle for metaindex | |||
index_handle: char[q]; // Block handle for index | |||
padding: char[40-p-q];// zeroed bytes to make fixed length | |||
// (40==2*BlockHandle::kMaxEncodedLength) | |||
magic: fixed64; // == 0xdb4775248b80fb57 (little-endian) | |||
## "filter" Meta Block | |||
If a `FilterPolicy` was specified when the database was opened, a | |||
filter block is stored in each table. The "metaindex" block contains | |||
an entry that maps from `filter.<N>` to the BlockHandle for the filter | |||
block where `<N>` is the string returned by the filter policy's | |||
`Name()` method. | |||
The filter block stores a sequence of filters, where filter i contains | |||
the output of `FilterPolicy::CreateFilter()` on all keys that are stored | |||
in a block whose file offset falls within the range | |||
[ i*base ... (i+1)*base-1 ] | |||
Currently, "base" is 2KB. So for example, if blocks X and Y start in | |||
the range `[ 0KB .. 2KB-1 ]`, all of the keys in X and Y will be | |||
converted to a filter by calling `FilterPolicy::CreateFilter()`, and the | |||
resulting filter will be stored as the first filter in the filter | |||
block. | |||
The filter block is formatted as follows: | |||
[filter 0] | |||
[filter 1] | |||
[filter 2] | |||
... | |||
[filter N-1] | |||
[offset of filter 0] : 4 bytes | |||
[offset of filter 1] : 4 bytes | |||
[offset of filter 2] : 4 bytes | |||
... | |||
[offset of filter N-1] : 4 bytes | |||
[offset of beginning of offset array] : 4 bytes | |||
lg(base) : 1 byte | |||
The offset array at the end of the filter block allows efficient | |||
mapping from a data block offset to the corresponding filter. | |||
## "stats" Meta Block | |||
This meta block contains a bunch of stats. The key is the name | |||
of the statistic. The value contains the statistic. | |||
TODO(postrelease): record following stats. | |||
data size | |||
index size | |||
key size (uncompressed) | |||
value size (uncompressed) | |||
number of entries | |||
number of data blocks |
@ -1,104 +0,0 @@ | |||
File format | |||
=========== | |||
<beginning_of_file> | |||
[data block 1] | |||
[data block 2] | |||
... | |||
[data block N] | |||
[meta block 1] | |||
... | |||
[meta block K] | |||
[metaindex block] | |||
[index block] | |||
[Footer] (fixed size; starts at file_size - sizeof(Footer)) | |||
<end_of_file> | |||
The file contains internal pointers. Each such pointer is called | |||
a BlockHandle and contains the following information: | |||
offset: varint64 | |||
size: varint64 | |||
See https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/encoding#varints | |||
for an explanation of varint64 format. | |||
(1) The sequence of key/value pairs in the file are stored in sorted | |||
order and partitioned into a sequence of data blocks. These blocks | |||
come one after another at the beginning of the file. Each data block | |||
is formatted according to the code in block_builder.cc, and then | |||
optionally compressed. | |||
(2) After the data blocks we store a bunch of meta blocks. The | |||
supported meta block types are described below. More meta block types | |||
may be added in the future. Each meta block is again formatted using | |||
block_builder.cc and then optionally compressed. | |||
(3) A "metaindex" block. It contains one entry for every other meta | |||
block where the key is the name of the meta block and the value is a | |||
BlockHandle pointing to that meta block. | |||
(4) An "index" block. This block contains one entry per data block, | |||
where the key is a string >= last key in that data block and before | |||
the first key in the successive data block. The value is the | |||
BlockHandle for the data block. | |||
(6) At the very end of the file is a fixed length footer that contains | |||
the BlockHandle of the metaindex and index blocks as well as a magic number. | |||
metaindex_handle: char[p]; // Block handle for metaindex | |||
index_handle: char[q]; // Block handle for index | |||
padding: char[40-p-q]; // zeroed bytes to make fixed length | |||
// (40==2*BlockHandle::kMaxEncodedLength) | |||
magic: fixed64; // == 0xdb4775248b80fb57 (little-endian) | |||
"filter" Meta Block | |||
------------------- | |||
If a "FilterPolicy" was specified when the database was opened, a | |||
filter block is stored in each table. The "metaindex" block contains | |||
an entry that maps from "filter.<N>" to the BlockHandle for the filter | |||
block where "<N>" is the string returned by the filter policy's | |||
"Name()" method. | |||
The filter block stores a sequence of filters, where filter i contains | |||
the output of FilterPolicy::CreateFilter() on all keys that are stored | |||
in a block whose file offset falls within the range | |||
[ i*base ... (i+1)*base-1 ] | |||
Currently, "base" is 2KB. So for example, if blocks X and Y start in | |||
the range [ 0KB .. 2KB-1 ], all of the keys in X and Y will be | |||
converted to a filter by calling FilterPolicy::CreateFilter(), and the | |||
resulting filter will be stored as the first filter in the filter | |||
block. | |||
The filter block is formatted as follows: | |||
[filter 0] | |||
[filter 1] | |||
[filter 2] | |||
... | |||
[filter N-1] | |||
[offset of filter 0] : 4 bytes | |||
[offset of filter 1] : 4 bytes | |||
[offset of filter 2] : 4 bytes | |||
... | |||
[offset of filter N-1] : 4 bytes | |||
[offset of beginning of offset array] : 4 bytes | |||
lg(base) : 1 byte | |||
The offset array at the end of the filter block allows efficient | |||
mapping from a data block offset to the corresponding filter. | |||
"stats" Meta Block | |||
------------------ | |||
This meta block contains a bunch of stats. The key is the name | |||
of the statistic. The value contains the statistic. | |||
TODO(postrelease): record following stats. | |||
data size | |||
index size | |||
key size (uncompressed) | |||
value size (uncompressed) | |||
number of entries | |||
number of data blocks |