US 11,899,651 B2
Automatic reclamation of storage space for database systems
Teck Hua Lee, San Mateo, CA (US); Tirthankar Lahiri, Palo Alto, CA (US); and Yunrui Li, Los Altos, CA (US)
Assigned to Oracle International Corporation, Redwood Shores, CA (US)
Filed by Oracle International Corporation, Redwood Shores, CA (US)
Filed on Aug. 8, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/818,271.
Application 17/818,271 is a continuation of application No. 16/948,306, filed on Sep. 11, 2020, granted, now 11,409,733, issued on Aug. 9, 2022.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/900,461, filed on Sep. 14, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2023/0027685 A1, Jan. 26, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06F 16/23 (2019.01); G06F 16/22 (2019.01)
CPC G06F 16/2365 (2019.01) [G06F 16/22 (2019.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method, comprising:
managing allocation of extents for database tables at a database space layer of a database system;
managing allocation of storage for the extents at a storage layer of the database system;
identifying a free extent that is located between two allocated extents, wherein a physical storage at the storage layer is allocated to the free extent; and
disassociating the free extent from the physical storage, wherein the physical storage at the storage layer is freed to be used for allocation to another extent, and the database space layer still considers space to be allocated to the free extent such that the free extent can be logically allocated for a database object.