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BLOBs in MariaDB's Memory Engine – No More Disk Spills for Temp Tables

BLOBs in MariaDB's Memory Engine – No More Disk Spills for Temp Tables

by arcivanov·Mar 6, 2026·1 point·1 comment
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AI Analysis

●●SolidBig Brain

Let MEMORY engine handle BLOBs—avoids Aria disk spill overhead on JSON temp tables.

Strengths
  • •Addresses real database pain: JSON/GEOMETRY columns force optimizer to use slower Aria temp tables even when data fits in memory
  • •Technical depth impressive: clear explanation of fixed-row-format constraints, continuation record chains, and disk overhead (page cache writes, file creation)
  • •Solves cascading problem: as JSON/vectors become standard column types, this becomes increasingly valuable for query performance
Weaknesses
  • •Not a shipped feature—JIRA ticket status is 'IN REVIEW' with no merged code or timeline; users can't adopt it yet
  • •Architectural changes are storage-engine-specific; solution only helps MariaDB, not competitors like PostgreSQL or MySQL
Target Audience

Database administrators, MariaDB core contributors, organizations running JSON-heavy analytical workloads

Similar To

DuckDB columnar optimizations · PostgreSQL TOAST (table overflow storage)

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