Delta Lake is a transactional table format and multi-engine connector suite. In production it writes Parquet data files alongside a JSON transaction log (`_delta_log`) and periodic checkpoints; every commit is an atomic append of log actions. Readers reconstruct table snapshots by replaying the log and checkpoints, enabling ACID operations, time travel, schema evolution, and incremental streaming on object storage. This repository is the reference implementation of that protocol, not an end-user data platform. The architecture is a multi-module Scala/Java/Python monorepo: `spark/` contains the Spark V1 and V2 connectors plus SQL extensions; `kernel/` is a standalone Java, engine-agnostic library exposing `Engine`, `TableManager`, `TransactionBuilder`, and a default Hadoop engine; `storage/` provides LogStore abstractions and cloud-specific commit coordination; and `flink/`, `iceberg/`, `sharing/`, and `python/delta` provide additional engine integrations. Key entry points are `DeltaTable`, `DeltaSparkSessionExtension`, `io.delta.kernel.TableManager`, and Flink's `DeltaDynamicTableSource`/`DeltaDynamicTableSink`. The central data flow is client -> `OptimisticTransaction`/Kernel `Transaction` -> log action -> LogStore commit; reads use `Snapshot`/`SnapshotBuilder` to replay log actions. External dependencies include Apache Spark, Hadoop FileSystem, Parquet, Jackson, and optional cloud SDKs. Maintenance is genuinely active: recent commits, CI matrices for Spark 4.0-4.2, Flink, Iceberg, Kernel, and Unity Catalog, plus a large compatibility test suite. The codebase nevertheless carries transitional complexity: a V2/Kernel-backed Spark connector coexists with the legacy V1 path, many Spark-version shims exist, test suites are partly auto-generated, and the old `connectors/` directory is explicitly in maintenance mode. Those factors prevent a perfect score, but this is a mature, high-craft storage-format project.
Apache Iceberg is a high-performance table format for analytic data lakes, providing ACID transactions, snapshot isolation, schema evolution, and time travel. The repository contains the Java reference implementation, including core libraries for table metadata management, file format support (Parquet, ORC, Avro, Arrow), expression evaluation, encryption, and a REST catalog protocol. It integrates deeply with Spark (versions 3.5, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2), Flink (1.20, 2.2, 2.3), Kafka Connect, Hive, and cloud object stores (AWS S3, Azure ADLS, Aliyun OSS, GCS). The architecture is modular: the `api` module defines public interfaces (Table, Catalog, Scan, FileIO), `core` provides implementations and utilities, and separate modules handle engine-specific integrations and cloud backends. Key entry points include the Table interface for DDL/DML operations, Scan for query planning, FileIO for storage access, and the REST catalog client for remote metadata management. Data flows involve reading/writing manifest files, applying expressions for predicate pushdown, and coordinating commits via optimistic concurrency control. External dependencies include Apache Parquet, ORC, Avro, Arrow, and various cloud SDKs, but the core is designed to be lightweight and extensible.