Patent ID: 8171257

Claim:
A computer implemented method, comprising: writing records to a log in a storage device in a sequential order, wherein the records include a next pointer addressing a next record in a write order and a far ahead pointer addressing a far ahead record in the write order following the record; and using the far ahead pointer and the next pointer in a plurality of records to determine an end of valid log from which to start writing further records by performing: determining a valid record in the log; setting a current best record to the determined valid record; in response to determining that the far ahead record is valid and has a sequence number greater than a sequence number of the current best record, setting the current best record to the far ahead record; and performing at least one additional iteration of setting the current best record to the far ahead record until the far ahead pointer addresses a record that is invalid or has a sequence number less than the sequence number of the current best record.