1. A computer-implemented method comprising: maintaining, by a database system, a system catalog comprising a reference to a table of persistent state records, wherein a persistent state record in the table of persistent state records includes a status of a database system object that is a physical file of the database system, and wherein the persistent state record includes a reference to the physical file; receiving, by a drop transaction of the database system, a request to delete the database system object; determining, as part of a crash recovery process, that one or more post-commit operations for the drop transaction were not performed before the database system was interrupted, including: determining, from an entry in a transaction log, that the drop transaction was committed by the database system, wherein the entry in the transaction log identifies the persistent state record of the database system object, and determining that the status of the database system object in the persistent state record indicates that the database system object has not been deleted; and in response to determining that the one or more post-commit operations for the drop transaction were not performed before the database system was interrupted, performing one or more of the post-commit operations including deleting the database system object.