Because they are frequently updated, B-tree pages require special treatment. It is important to minimize the number of times B-tree nodes are split, as well as to minimize the need to uncompress and recompress their content.

One technique InnoDB uses is to maintain some system information in the B-tree node in uncompressed form, thus facilitating certain in-place updates. For example, this allows rows to be delete-marked and deleted without any compression operation.

In addition, InnoDB attempts to avoid unnecessary uncompression and recompression of index pages when they are changed. Within each B-tree page, the system keeps an uncompressed “modification log” to record changes made to the page. Updates and inserts of small records may be written to this modification log without requiring the entire page to be completely reconstructed.

When the space for the modification log runs out, InnoDB uncompresses the page, applies the changes and recompresses the page. If recompression fails, the B-tree nodes are split and the process is repeated until the update or insert succeeds.

Generally, InnoDB requires that each B-tree page can accommodate at least two records. For compressed tables, this requirement has been relaxed. Leaf pages of B-tree nodes (whether of the primary key or secondary indexes) only need to accommodate one record, but that record must fit in uncompressed form, in the per-page modification log. Starting with InnoDB Plugin version 1.0.2, and if InnoDB strict mode is ON, the InnoDB Plugin checks the maximum row size during CREATE TABLE or CREATE INDEX. If the row does not fit, the following error message is issued: ERROR HY000: Too big row.

If you create a table when InnoDB strict mode is OFF, and a subsequent INSERT or UPDATE command attempts to create an index entry that does not fit in the size of the compressed page, the operation fails with ERROR 42000: Row size too large. Unfortunately, this error message does not name the index for which the record is too large, or mention the length of the index record or the maximum record size on that particular index page. The only remedy is to rebuild the table with ALTER TABLE, in order to select a larger compressed page size (KEY_BLOCK_SIZE), to shorten any column prefix indexes, or to disable compression entirely with ROW_FORMAT=DYNAMIC or ROW_FORMAT=COMPACT.