In the case of databases, the easiest way to get them is by deleting them. This is a common practice in the world of data storage. With a database, you don’t have to delete every file you’re browsing, but if you’re in a situation where you’re not a good user, it’s a good idea to keep the file in sync with your other files.
That said, it’s important to note this is not a database of files (although there are definitely databases of files). Rather it is a database of changes. Every time you edit a file, you update it from one file to the next, which means that if you delete a file, you also delete all of its changes.
The database file system is incredibly important in maintaining data integrity. As a database administrator, you want to make sure you are always updating your databases with the latest database schema. Because there can be thousands of changes to a file, it is important to make sure that you are always keeping the correct files in sync with each other.
Database file maintenance is a complex subject that is often not well covered in books on database administration. The first thing you should realize is that there are a million different ways to do database file maintenance. I’ll spare you by giving you an example or two here.
Let’s use a simple example. Suppose you have a file IPC_SYSTEM.LOG. The most common method is just to update the file with “I have a problem with the database.” If you have a file with the same name as the current log, then that file will always be read, since it is the “current” file.
That doesn’t work, because the file IPC_SYSTEM.LOG could be renamed to IPC_SYSTEM.LOG_old, or even IPC_SYSTEM.LOG_old.old.
This is what happens to databases. If your database contains the current log, you will always get a copy of the newest log. If you have a newer log, it will be read on the first update, and if you have a different newer log you will get an old log.
Why is this so? Because the database is being updated, usually in intervals of a few minutes. So it has to read new log files, but old log files will always be read, even if the database has been updated in the interim.
But when you want to see the latest log, it’s best to not make a copy of the log file. To make a copy of the log, you would need to overwrite the file with a new one, or you need to have a special program that is able to read the log file and overwrite it with the newest log.
In this case, we are told that a specific log file is being updated, but you don’t know which specific log file it is. So that’s why you need to be careful when you use Log4J. It can overwrite your log file if you don’t do a little bit of work.