Reclaiming space occupied by an expired variable record in a non-volatile record storage
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorKurt David Gillespie
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a method for reclaiming space occupied by an expired variable record in a non-volatile record storage, a reclaim state data that includes a state of a reclaim operation is maintained. In addition, the state of the reclaim operation is marked to indicate a progress of the reclaim operation at a plurality of stages of the reclaim operation. The reclaim operation is implemented by sliding, one section at a time, the data in a first direction along the plurality of sections and by sliding, one section at a time, the variable records, excluding the expired variable record, in a second direction along the plurality of sections, to thereby remove the expired variable record.
Claims15
A method for reclaiming space occupied by an expired variable record in a non-volatile record storage comprising:
- maintaining, by a processor, a reclaim state data that includes a state of a reclaim operation;
- marking the state of the reclaim operation to indicate a progress of the reclaim operation at a plurality of stages of the reclaim operation;
- and
- implementing the reclaim operation by,
- a) sliding, one section at a time, data in a first direction along a plurality of sections of the non-volatile record storage, wherein the data includes a plurality of variable records, the plurality of variable records including the expired variable record;
- and
- b) sliding, one section at a time, the variable records, excluding the expired variable record, in a second direction along the plurality of sections, to thereby remove the expired variable record.
A computing apparatus comprising:
- a non-volatile record storage having a plurality of sections upon which data is recorded, wherein the data includes a plurality of variable records, the plurality of variable records including an expired variable record;
- a module to maintain a reclaim state data area that includes a state of a reclaim operation, to mark the state of the reclaim operation to indicate a progress of the reclaim operation at a plurality of stages of the reclaim operation, to implement the reclaim operation by transferring, one section at a time, the data from the plurality of sections in which the data is recorded to a plurality of the sections located in a first direction along the plurality of sections, and by transferring, one section at a time, the variable records, excluding the expired variable record, from the plurality of the sections to which the variable records were transferred to a plurality of the sections located in a section direction, to thereby remove the expired variable record;
- and
- a processor to implement the module.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions that if executed cause a processor to:
- maintain a reclaim state data area that includes a state of a reclaim operation;
- mark the state of the reclaim operation to indicate a progress of the reclaim operation at a plurality of stages of the reclaim operation;
- implement the reclaim operation by,
- a) sliding, one section at a time, data in a first direction along a plurality of sections of the non-volatile record storage, wherein the data includes a plurality of variable records, the plurality of variable records including the expired variable record;
- and
- b) sliding, one section at a time, the variable records, excluding the expired variable record, in a second direction along the plurality of sections, to thereby remove the expired variable record.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.