In the process of following up on the "Updates/Deletes/Upserts" thread, I'm re-reading the table spec. I have a question about Manifest List files.
If I understand correctly, the manifest list files are separate files that are created prior to attempting to commit a new snapshot. Each snapshot may have a single manifest list file. The manifest list file references _all_ manifest files included in the snapshot. During a commit collision, two writers will produce new manifest list files. Assuming the two writes are compatible (one is append, one is replace, for example) the loser should be able to re-process their commit without rewriting any data files but will, nonetheless, need to rewrite their manifest list file in addition to rewriting their snapshot file. I was under the impression that it was a design objective to minimize the amount of work required in order to retry a commit. The inability to compose multiple manifest list files together seems like it adds mandatory read and write steps to almost every commit collision. Can someone clarify what the philosophy is with regards to minimizing the cost of commit retries? Thanks! -Erik
