2019-06-14 13:36 UTC

Fun MySQL fact of the day: group commit

We now know that each MySQL thread has its own binary log cache to which it writes the binary log events for a single transaction. We also briefly discussed that MySQL will, upon commit of a transaction, write the thread's binary log cache to the actual binary log file. And ... read more

2019-03-20 08:33 UTC

Fun MySQL fact of the day: the phantom record menace

Yesterday, we created an index to prevent a full table scan from locking the entire list_of_things table during a single UPDATE. I mentioned it was an improvement to the problem, but not a complete fix. Today, we'll see why.  ... read more

2019-03-19 08:32 UTC

Fun MySQL fact of the day: tenant lock-out

A couple weeks ago, we very briefly touched on the subject about MySQL/InnoDB locking only single records. And since we're on the topic of multi-tenant schemas, I think it's a good time to focus on this subject. For now, we'll focus on using MySQL's default isolation, REPEATABLE READ. ... read more

2019-03-04 23:15 UTC

Fun MySQL fact of the day: REPEATABLE READ isn't REPEATABLE WRITE

Since we're on the topic of transaction isolation, you might have previously had a mental model that transaction isolation levels are a layered model, each one stronger than the next. Unfortunately, this isn't quite true; and if that's not annoying enough, you might even be surprised to learn that ... read more

2016-02-21 19:37 UTC

The Cost Of Consistency: When 9ms Is 1s Too Much

The CAP theorem remains one of the most important tools in my software developer's toolbelt. Used correctly, it can help create services and products that can offer an excellent user experience and protect revenue during partial failures. Used incorrectly, it can lead to a poor user experience and loss of ... read more

2016-02-07 23:24 UTC

Pessimistic Optimism: The Case Of Unexpected Deadlocks

Despite the fact I've been developing software in one way or another for almost 20 years, I'm constantly surprised how things work, and, once the frustration wears off, I'm intrigued when things break. Lucky for me, over the last few weeks, I've been surprised, frustrated, and intrigued by what, on ... read more

2014-01-11 15:48 UTC

Perceiving The Effects Of Cache Coherency In Spin Locks

The "test-and-test-and-set" algorithm is a fairly well-understood solution to reducing latency in spin locks. In particular, the algorithm is often employed to reduce the latency exhibited in the similar "test-and-set" algorithm. Understanding how and why a seeming-superfluous read results in lower latency is rather interesting. ... read more

2013-03-28 00:51 UTC

No ConcurrentHashSet? No Problem

The JDK provides several concurrent Set classes, each with their own application, but it does not provide a ConcurrentHashSet. Using the Collections utility class, however, such a structure may be created. ... read more

2013-03-18 00:53 UTC

The Concurrency Of ConcurrentHashMap

Java's ConcurrentHashMap is an excellent point of study when learning about Java's Memory Model. It employs numerous techniques to provide lock-free reads while still guaranteeing safe publication of objects. This article represents my attempt to take the magic out of the ConcurrentHashMap implementation. ... read more

2013-01-22 02:54 UTC

Escape Analysis & Stack Allocated Objects

In 1999, a paper, Escape Analysis For Java was to appear in the ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Object-Oriented Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications. This paper outlined an algorithm to detect whether an object, O, escaped from the currently executed method, M, or current thread, T. This paper ... read more