Skip to content
Latchkey

Write-Ahead Log (WAL) - CI/CD Glossary Definition

A write-ahead log records every change before it is applied to the data files, so a crashed database can replay the log to recover committed transactions. It also drives replication and point-in-time restore.

Why it matters

The WAL is what makes the Durability in ACID possible, and shipping it to replicas is how many databases (Postgres, MySQL binlog) keep copies in sync.

Related guides

Tired of flaky CI? Latchkey auto-heals failed jobs and retries them for you. Start free →