Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Glue-Nail deductive database system: Design, implementation, and evaluation

  • Special Issue on Prototypes of Deductive Database Systems
  • Published:
The VLDB Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We describe the design and implementation of the Glue-Nail deductive database system. Nail is a purely declarative query language; Glue is a procedural language used for non-query activities. The two languages combined are sufficient to write a complete application. Nail and Glue code are both compiled into the target language IGlue. The Nail compiler uses variants of the magic sets algorithm and supports well-founded models. The Glue compiler's static optimizer uses peephole techniques and data flow analysis to improve code. The IGlue interpreter features a run-time adaptive optimizer that reoptimizes queries and automatically selects indexes. We also describe the Glue-Nail benchmark suite, a set of applications developed to evaluate the Glue-Nail language and to measure the performance of the system.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alverson, R., Blank, T., Choi, K., Hwang, S.Y., Salz, A., Soule, L., and Rokicki, T. THOR user's manual: Tutorial and commands. Technical Report CSL-TR-88-348, Computer Systems Laboratory, Stanford University, 1988.

  • Bancilhon, F. Naive evaluation of recursively defined relations. In: Brodie, M.L. and Mylopoulos, J., eds.On Knowledge Base Management Systems, New York: Springer-Verlag, 1986, pp. 165–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beeri, C. and Ramakrishnan, R. On the power of magic.Proceedings of the 1987 ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART Symposium on the Principles of Database Systems, San Diego, California, 1987.

  • Chen, W., Kifer, M., and Warren, D.S. HiLog: A first-order semantics of higherorder logic programming constructs.Logic Programming: Proceedings of North American Conference, Cleveland, 1989.

  • Chimenti, D., Gamboa, R., and Krishnamurthy, R. Abstract machine for LDL.Proceedings of the International Conference on Extending Database Technology, Venice, Italy, 1990.

  • Date, C.J.An Introduction to Database Systems, vol. 1. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derr, M.A. Adaptive optimization in a database programming language. PhD thesis, Department of Computer Science Report No. STAN-CS-92-1460, Stanford University, Stanford, California, December 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derr, M.A. Adaptive optimization in a deductive database system.Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management, Washington, DC, 1993.

  • Derr, M.A., Morishita, S., and Phipps, G. Design and implementation of the Glue-Nail database system.Proceedings of the 1993 ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data, Washington, DC, 1993.

  • Freeston, M. The BANG file: A new kind of grid file.Proceedings of the ACM SIGMOD Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA, 1987.

  • Freitag, B., Schütz, H., and Specht, G. LOLA—a logic language for deductive databases and its implementation.Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Database Systems for Advanced Applications, Tokyo, Japan, 1991.

  • Kemp, D.B., Ramamohanarao, K., and Somogyi, Z. Right-, left-, and multi-linear rule transformations that maintain context information.Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Conference on Very Large Databases, Brisbane, Australia, 1990.

  • Kemp, D.B., Stuckey, P.J., and Srivastava, D. Query restricted bottom-up evaluation of well-founded models.Proceedings of the 1992 Joint Conference and Symposium on Logic Programming, Washington DC, 1992.

  • Kerisit, J.-M. and Pugin, J.-M. Efficient query answering on stratified databases.Proceedings of the International Conference on Fifth Generation Computer Systems, Tokyo, Japan, 1988.

  • Lloyd, J.W.Foundations of Logic Programming. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Makinouchi, A. A consideration on normal form of not-necessarily-normalized relations in the relational data model.Proceedings of the International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, Tokyo, Japan, 1977.

  • Melton, J., ed.ISO-ANSI Working Draft Database Language SQL (SQL3), 1993. ANSI X3H2-93-091 and ISO DBL-YOK 003.

  • Morishita, S. An alternating fixpoint tailored to magic programs.Proceedings of the 1993 ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART Symposium on the Principles of Database Systems, Washington DC, 1993.

  • Morris, K., Naughton, J.F., Saraiya, Y., Ullman, J.D., and Van Gelder, A. YAWN! (Yet Another Window on NAIL!).Data Engineering, 10(4):28–43, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris, K., Ullman, J.D., and Van Gelder, A. Design overview of the NAIL! system.Proceedings of the International Conference on Logic Programming, Location? 1986.

  • Mumick, I.S. and Pirahesh, H. Extending the right-linear transformation. Research Report RJ 7938, IBM Research Division, Computer Science, Almaden Research Center, January 1991.

  • Naqvi, S. and Tsur, S.A Logical Language for Data and Knowledge Bases. New York: Computer Science Press, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phipps, G. Glue: A deductive database programming language.Proceedings of the NACLP Workshop on Deductive Databases. Kansas State University Technical Report TR-CS-90-14, 1990.

  • Phipps, G. Glue: A deductive database programming language. PhD thesis, Department of Computer Science Report No. STAN-CS-92-1437, Stanford University, Stanford, California, July 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phipps, G., Derr, M.A., and Ross, K.A. Glue-Nail: A deductive database system.Proceedings of the ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data, Denver, Colorado, 1991.

  • Ramakrishnan, R. Magic templates: A spellbinding approach to logic programs.Logic Programming: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference and Symposium, Seattle, WA, 1988.

  • Ramakrishnan, ed.,Proceedings of the Workshop on Programming with Logic Databases, Vancouver, BC, Canada, October 1993. Computer Sciences Department Technical Report #1183, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

  • Ramakrishnan, R., Srivastava, D., and Sudarshan, S. CORAL: Control relations and logic.Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, Vancouver, Canada, 1992.

  • Ross, K. Modularly stratification and magic sets for datalog programs with negation.Proceedings of the ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART Symposium on the Principles of Database Systems, Nashville, TN, 1990.

  • Ross, K. Modular acyclicity and tail recursion in logic programs.Proceedings of the ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART Symposium on the Principles of Database Systems, Denver, CO, 1991.

  • Schmidt, J.W. Some high level language constructs for data of type relation.ACM Transactions on Database Systems, 2(3):247–261, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selinger, P.G., Atrahan, M.M., Chamberlin, D.D., Lorie, R.A., and Price, T.G. Access path selection in a relational database management system.Proceedings of the ACM SIGMOD International Conference on the Management of Data, Washington, DC, 1979.

  • Thom, J.A. and Zobel, J. Nu-Prolog Reference Manual, version 1.5.24. Technical Report 86/10, Department of Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ullman, J.D.Principles of Database and Knowledge-Base Systems, vol. 2. Rockville, MD: Computer Science Press, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaghani, J., Ramamohanarao, K., Kemp, D.B., Somogyi, Z., and Stuckey, P.J. The Aditi deductive database system.Proceedings of the NACLP Workshop on Deductive Databases. Kansas State University Technical Report TR-CS-90-14, 1990.

  • Van Gelder, A. The alternating fixpoint of logic programs with negation.Proceedings of the Eighth ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART Symposium on the Principles of Database Systems, Philadelphia, PA, 1989.

  • Vieille, L. Recursive axioms in deductive databases: The query/sub-query approach.Proceedings of the First International Conference on Expert Database Systems, Charleston, SC, 1986.

  • Vieille, L., Bayer, P., Küchenhoff, V., and Lefebvre, A. EKS-V1, a short overview.AAAI Workshop on Knowledge Base Management Systems, Boston MA, 1990.

  • Whang, K.-Y. and Krishnamurthy, R. Query optimization in a memory-resident domain relational calculus database system.ACM Transactions on Database Systems, 15(1):67–95, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiederhold, G. Views, Objects, and Databases.IEEE Computer, 19(12):37–44, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. AT&T Bell Laboratories, 600 Mountain Avenue, Room 2B430, 07974-0636, Murray Hill, NJ, USA

    Marcia A. Derr Ph.D (Technical Staffmember)

  2. Tokyo Research Laboratory, IBM Japan, 5-19, Sanban-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102, Japan

    Shinichi Morishita Ph.D (Advisory Researcher)

  3. Sun Microsystems Laboratories, Inc., 2550 Garcia Avenue, MTV 28-112, 94043-1100, Mountain View, CA, USA

    Geoffrey Phipps Ph.D (Technical Staffmember)

Authors
  1. Marcia A. Derr Ph.D
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Shinichi Morishita Ph.D
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Geoffrey Phipps Ph.D
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Much of this research was done while the authors were at Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Derr, M.A., Morishita, S. & Phipps, G. The Glue-Nail deductive database system: Design, implementation, and evaluation. VLDB Journal 3, 123–160 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01228879

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01228879

Key Words

Search

Navigation