diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 3168023..d7590dd 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -150,3 +150,24 @@ err := c.Delete([]byte("foo")) err := c.DeleteString("foo") ``` + +## Internals + +The Bolt database is meant to be a clean, readable implementation of a fast single-level key/value data store. +This section gives an overview of the basic concepts and structure of the file format. + +### Pages + +Bolt stores its data in discrete units called pages. +The page size can be configured but is typically between 4KB and 32KB. + +There are several different types of pages: + +* Meta pages - The first two pages in a database are meta pages. These are used to store references to root pages for system buckets as well as keep track of the last transaction identifier. + +* Branch pages - These pages store references to the location of deeper branch pages or leaf pages. + +* Leaf pages - These pages store the actual key/value data. + +* Overflow pages - These are special pages used when a key's data is too large for a leaf page and needs to spill onto additional pages. +