University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Computer Science Department Faculty Publication Computer Science Series 1995 Lightweight Support for Fine-Grained Persistence on Stock Hardware Antony L. Hosking University of Massachusetts - Amherst Follow this and additional works at:https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cs_faculty_pubs Part of theComputer Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Hosking, Antony L., "Lightweight Support for Fine-Grained Persistence on Stock Hardware" (1995).Computer Science Department Faculty Publication Series. 38. Retrieved fromhttps://scholarworks.umass.edu/cs_faculty_pubs/38 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Computer Science at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Computer Science Department Faculty Publication Series by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please [email protected]. Lightweight Support for Fine-Grained Persistence on Stock Hardware AntonyL.Hosking Technical Report 95-02 February 1995 ComputerScience Department UniversityofMassachusettsat Amherst LIGHTWEIGHTSUPPORT FOR FINE-GRAINED PERSISTENCE ONSTOCK HARDWARE ADissertationPresented by ANTONYLLOYD HOSKING SubmittedtotheGraduateSchool ofthe UniversityofMassachusettsAmherstinpartial fulfillment oftherequirementsforthedegreeof DOCTOROF PHILOSOPHY February 1995 DepartmentofComputerScience c CopyrightbyAntonyLloydHosking1995 (cid:13) All RightsReserved ToCarla iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS One cannot survive the Ph.D. experience without the support and guidance of a great manypeople. TothoseindividualsIneglecttomentionherebyname(andtherearemany) I stilloffermydeepest thanks. Upon my arrival at a new university in a strange country I was fortunate to land in the office of Eliot Moss. As my advisor throughout my time at UMass, Eliot has been a constant source of support, encouragement, and inspiration. His intellectual and scholarly integrityhasbeentheprimaryrolemodelinmyownacademicdevelopment. Itisanhonor andaprivilegethatI am nowabletocounthimas acolleague. Specialthanksmustalsogotomycomradesinarms,themembersoftheObjectSystems Laboratory,whosecompanionship(bothacademicandotherwise)Ihavegreatlyenjoyed. I thankAmerDiwanforhisenthusiasmineducatingmeastotheintricaciesofcachememory simulation, Eric Brown for his tireless support and development of the Mneme persistent object store, Darko Stefanovic´ for his assistance debugging and improving the garbage collectortoolkit,RickHudsonforourmanytechnicaldiscussions,andNormWalshforhis adviceandassistancewithTEXandLATEX(seealsoWalsh[1994]). Thanksalsotothemany membersoftheOOSlabovertheyearsfortheirpartinmakingitsuchavitalandinteresting workplace. This dissertation has been greatly improved by the comments of my examining com- mittee,LoriClarke,JackStankovic,DaveStempleandWayneBurleson. Theiradviceand interesthavehelpedmeimmensely. Lastly, I thank my family for their guidance, encouragement, and confidence. I thank myparentsfornurturingmeinanenvironmentwherethepursuitofknowledgewasalways v such incredible fun, and striving towards excellence a noble goal in itself. To my wife, Carla Brodley, I am forever indebted for her sage advice and unflagging support through theupsanddownsofpostgraduatestudentlife. Whenobstaclesappearedtoblockmyway shesawthewayaroundthemifI didnot. —— This research has been supported by the National Science Foundation under grants CCR-9211272, CCR-8658074 and DCR-8500332, and by the following companies and corporations: SunMicrosystems,DigitalEquipment,AppleComputer,GTELaboratories, EastmanKodak,General Electric,ParcPlace Systems,XeroxandTektronix. vi ABSTRACT LIGHTWEIGHTSUPPORT FOR FINE-GRAINED PERSISTENCE ONSTOCK HARDWARE FEBRUARY 1995 ANTONYLLOYD HOSKING B.Sc., UNIVERSITYOFADELAIDE M.Sc.,UNIVERSITYOFWAIKATO Ph.D.,UNIVERSITY OFMASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directedby: ProfessorJ.EliotB.Moss Persistent programminglanguages combine the features of database systems and pro- gramming languages to allow the seamless manipulation of both short- and long-term data,thusrelievingprogrammersoftheburdenofdistinguishingbetweendatathatis tran- sient(temporarilyallocatedinmainmemory)orpersistent(residingpermanentlyondisk). Secondary storage concerns, including the representation and management of persistent data, are directly handled by the programming language implementation, rather than the programmer. Moreover, unlike traditional database systems, persistent programming lan- guagesextendtopersistentdataallthedatastructuringfeaturessupportedbythe language, notjustthoseimposedbytheunderlyingdatabasesystem. Prototype persistent languages have until now focused more on functionality than performance. In contrast, this dissertation addresses performance issues in the language implementation. It presents an architecture and framework for persistence which allows programminglanguageimplementationtechniquestobebroughttobearontheproblemof performance. Buildingonthisframework,aprototypepersistentprogramminglanguageis vii