Deconstructing the DuckDB Buffer System.. Part 1
Choosing Database Internals as my niche, I chose DuckDB as the open-source project to contribute to. I began deconstructing its buffer system(here's a link to it), starting with bufferpool.cpp. Here's
Series
Deconstructing DuckDB
A systematic, mechanical deconstruction of the DuckDB buffer manager and storage internals. This series covers low-level component analyses—spanning block allocation, buffer pools, eviction policies, and handle lifecycles—directly from the source code. Followed by the complete engineering process of diagnosing edge cases, isolating system constraints, and auditing upstream pull request candidates for merge.
Posts in this series
Deconstructing the DuckDB Buffer System.. Part 2
After deconstructing the bufferpool, I was off to analysing the block_manager.cpp(here's a link to it). The question at the core of this component of the buffer system was "How is a disk block request
Deconstructing the DuckDB Buffer System.. Part 3
The final components that are yet to be dissected are blockhandle.cpp and bufferhandle.cpp(here's a link to it). The core aspects of the buffer to be understood by these files are the lifetime and the
DuckDB PR1 — Selecting a PR Candidate
Investigating C++ stack unwinding, destructor cleanup, aggregate-state lifetime, and memory ownership during DuckDB OOM handling
DuckDB PR1 — Phase 1: Setting Up the Build
..from MSYS2 CLANG64 to a Linux-Native WSL2 Build: Troubleshooting Sanitizers, CMake, and Ninja.
DuckDB PR1 — Phase 2: Investigating the Double-Free
..reproducing a DuckDB memory-safety bug with AddressSanitizer, automated test matrices, controlled memory and thread limits, and historical-version analysis.
