Performance

Copy‑on‑write B‑trees let databases take point‑in‑time snapshots instantly, without blocking writes. This post explains the mechanics, trade‑offs, and real‑world implementations.

Copy‑on‑write avoids costly memory allocation by sharing data until a write occurs, dramatically improving throughput in many systems.

Copy‑on‑write lets the kernel clone a process without copying its memory pages, deferring duplication until a write occurs, which dramatically speeds up fork.

This article explains how copy‑on‑write B‑trees work, why they speed up database snapshots, and what trade‑offs developers should consider.

B‑trees keep disk reads low and writes efficient, making them the preferred index structure in databases and filesystems.