Misframe

Apr 3, 2017

lm2log

I started lm2log 6 months ago according to GitHub. I think it was the first useful abstraction I wrote on top of lm2, my linked list storage library written in Go.

The API is really simple. You basically just Prepare, Commit, Rollback, and Get data. Because it’s using lm2, all of lm2log’s operations are fully durable and crash-safe. I don’t have anything else to say about this package besides the fact that it’s essential to the two-phase commit logic of the metadata service I’m building (to be announced!).

The fun thing about this is that it’s totally unimpressive. lm2 is unimpressive. It’s a slow storage library implemented as a linked list. lm2log is a commit log built on top of lm2. And I’m building more things on top. Compared to “modern” production database engines, this stuff looks more like a silly toy. But, I’m still getting some great guarantees. I already explained how I can get ACID transactions with lm2. My goal lately has been to take simple, unimpressive things and build robust, impressive systems on top. So far so good.

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