lsm-tombstone-is-empty-bytes

Status: IN

Deletion is represented as `TOMBSTONE = b""` (empty bytes), which means empty-byte-string values and deleted keys are indistinguishable at the storage layer.

Source: entries/2026/05/28/log-structured-merge-tree-lsm.md

Example

TOMBSTONE = b""
def delete(self, key):
    self.put(key, TOMBSTONE)

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