Efficient and flexible methods for transient versioning of records to avoid locking by read-only transactions

Abstract

We present efficient and flexible methods which permit read-only transactions that do not mind reading a possibly slightly old, but still consistent, version of the data base to execute without acquiring locks. This approach avoids the undesirable interferences between such queries and the typically shorter update transactions that cause unnecessary and costly delays. Indexed access by such queries is also supported, unlike by the earlier methods. Old versions of records are maintained only in a transient fashion. Our methods are characterized by their flexibility (number of versions maintained and the timing of version switches, supporting partial rollbacks, and different recovery and buffering methods) and their efficiency (logging, garbage collection, version selection, and incremental, record-level versioning). Distributed data base environments are also supported, including commit protocols with the read-only optimization. We also describe efficient methods for garbage collecting unneeded older versions.