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#+TITLE: Journals and derived relations
Two protocols and two kernel modules let subsystems share state over time
without linking each other. They stand in for what the branch manager will
do once it records the bindings of a namespace.
* Journal
A journal (=Kernel.Journal=) is a namespace that keeps its history. It
answers =Directory= and =Registry= as =Kernel.Namespace= does, so code that
only knows those keeps working, and every binding it accepts is a commit:
#+begin_src ocaml
type commit = {number: int; snapshot: Handle.t; changed: string list}
#+end_src
=snapshot= is a directory of every binding as it stood after the commit.
The =Journal= protocol adds:
- =commit=: bind several names together, each provided it is still bound
to what was expected. Either all land or none does.
- =guard=: a function shown each commit before it lands, with the commit it
would follow. Returning an error refuses it.
- =observe=: a function told of each commit after it lands.
Guards and observers run while the journal is held, so they see commits one
at a time and in order. Neither may commit to the journal itself.
=Kernel.Journal.adopt= makes a journal holding whatever a directory binds
now. =Kernel.Journal.rebind= binds names in one commit when given a journal,
and one at a time, retrying each swap, when given a plain namespace.
* Derived
A relation computed from other relations carries =Derived=:
#+begin_src ocaml
method within : Handle.t -> (Handle.t, condition) result
#+end_src
=within d= is the same relation read against the directory =d=. A snapshot
applies it to whatever derived relation it hands out, with itself as =d=.
So reading through a snapshot gives a derived relation as it was at that
commit, or, for a commit a guard is still weighing, as it would be.
=Kernel.View.computed= makes such a relation from a function of a directory,
and =Kernel.View.fixed= one that never changes. =Kernel.View.read= reads a
relation's heading and tuples whole.
* Limits
- History lives in memory and grows without bound.
- A snapshot is named by its bindings, so two commits that bind the same
objects are the same snapshot.
- A derived relation is computed again on every read.
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