LIBTP: Portable, Modular Transactions for UNIX

M. Seltzer and M. Olson

EECS Department
University of California, Berkeley
Technical Report No. UCB/ERL M92/2
January 1992

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1992/ERL-92-2.pdf

Transactions provide a useful programming paradigm for maintaining logical consistency, arbitrating concurrent access, and managing recovery. In traditional UNIX systems, the only easy way of using transactions is to purchase a database system. Such systems are often slow, costly, and may not provide the exact functionality desired. This paper presents the design, implementation, and performance of LlBTP, a simple, non-proprietary transaction library using the 4.4BSD database access routines (db(3)). On a conventional transaction processing style benchmark, its performance is approximately 85% that of the database access routines without transaction protection, 200% that of using fsyuc(2) to commit modifications to disk, and 125% that of a commercial relational database system.

BibTeX citation:

@techreport{Seltzer:M92/2,
    Author = {Seltzer, M. and Olson, M.},
    Title = {LIBTP: Portable, Modular Transactions for UNIX},
    Institution = {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year = {1992},
    Month = {Jan},
    URL = {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1992/1925.html},
    Number = {UCB/ERL M92/2},
    Abstract = {Transactions provide a useful programming paradigm for maintaining logical consistency, arbitrating concurrent access, and managing recovery. In traditional UNIX systems, the only easy way of using transactions is to purchase a database system. Such systems are often slow, costly, and may not provide the exact functionality desired. This paper presents the design, implementation, and performance of LlBTP, a simple, non-proprietary transaction library using the 4.4BSD database access routines (db(3)). On a conventional transaction processing style benchmark, its performance is approximately 85% that of the database access routines without transaction protection, 200% that of using fsyuc(2) to commit modifications to disk, and 125% that of a commercial relational database system.}
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Report
%A Seltzer, M.
%A Olson, M.
%T LIBTP: Portable, Modular Transactions for UNIX
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 1992
%@ UCB/ERL M92/2
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1992/1925.html
%F Seltzer:M92/2