busksorter

Busksorter is a software library concept for sorting sequences, emphasizing streaming data and external sorting. It is described here as a hypothetical tool used for illustrative purposes and is not a widely adopted project. The goal is to enable sorting of datasets larger than available memory by generating and merging runs on disk, while supporting stable, multi-key orderings.

Key features

- Streaming input with backpressure handling

- External sorting with run generation and multiway merge

- Stable, multi-key sorting with custom comparators

- Configurable memory usage and parallel execution

- Pluggable storage backends for RAM, disk, or hybrid setups

Architecture

Core components include an input adapter, a run generator, a sorter engine, a merger, and an output writer. The input adapter streams records and extracts sort keys. The run generator creates memory-sized sorted runs. The sorter engine sorts each run, and the merger combines runs into the final sorted output. Storage backends manage intermediate data and may be swapped to optimize I/O.

Use cases

Common use cases include sorting large log files, archival records, and streaming data within data pipelines where in-memory sorting is impractical.

Performance and limitations

Performance depends on I/O bandwidth and storage speed, with external sorting typically dominating time cost. Busksorter aims to minimize memory usage through run-based processing, but it incurs disk I/O overhead and may be slower than in-memory sorts for small datasets.

Relation to other concepts

Busksorter intersects with external sort, stable sort, and multi-key sorting. It shares concepts with external memory algorithms and streaming data processing frameworks.

See also

External sort, Stable sort, Multi-key sorting, External memory algorithm, Streaming data processing.