US Patent 10013440 Incremental out-of-place updates for index structures

Incremental, out-of-place updates may be implemented for index structures maintained for data stores. Portions of the index structure may be selected for updating, and an updated version of the portion of the index structure generated in another storage location different than a current storage location for the index structure such that the index structure may be searched in order to perform access requests. Updating the portion of the index structure may include compacting the portion of the index structure and/or merging the portion of the index structure with a sub-index structure generated from a portion of a log of index updates that may be maintained. The current portion of the index structure may then be replaced with the updated version of the current portion so that the updated version may be evaluated when searches of the index structure are performed.