Database maintenance efficiency using differential files

Abstract Severance and Lohman[1] proposed that all database amendments (i.e. additions, deletions and updates) are localized into a relatively small storage area, called a differential file. When the differential file grows sufficiently large, a reorganization incorporates all changes into a new generation of the database. This paper proposes a modification of the differential file approach in that the differential file only stores record additions. It is also concerned with the selection of the optimum reorganization points for both the original and the modified differential file approaches.