The deferred-modification technique ensures transaction atomicity by recording all database modifications in the log, but deferring all write operations of a transaction until the transaction partially commits (i.e., once the final action of the transaction has been executed). Then the information in the logs is used to execute the deferred writes. If the system crashes or if the transaction aborts, then the information in the logs is ignored.

The immediate-update technique allows database modifications to be output to the database while the transaction is still in the active state. These modifications are called uncommitted modifications. In the event of a crash or transaction failure, the system must use the old-value field of the log records to restore the modified data items.