An index implementation supporting fast recovery for the POSTGRES storage system

The authors present two algorithms for maintaining B-tree index consistency in a database management system which does not use write-ahead logging (WAL). One algorithm is similar to shadow paging, but improves performance by integrating shadow meta-data with index meta-data. The other algorithm uses a two-phase page reorganization scheme to reduce the space overhead caused by shadow paging. Although designed for the POSTGRES storage system, these algorithms should also be useful in a WAL-based storage system, as support for logical logging. Measurements and analysis of a prototype implementation suggest that the algorithms will have little impact on data manager performance