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# Native types in Redis modules
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Redis modules can access Redis built-in data structures both at a high level,
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by calling Redis commands, and at a low level, by manipulating the data structures
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directly.
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By using these capabilities in order to build new abstractions on top of existing
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Redis data structures, or by using the strings DMA (direct memory access) in order to encode modules
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data structures into Redis strings, it is possible to create modules that
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*feel like* they are exporting new data types. However, for more complex
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problems, this is not enough, and the implementation of new data structures
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inside the module is needed.
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We call the ability of Redis modules to implement new data structures that
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feel like native Redis ones **native types support**. This document describes
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the API exported by the Redis modules system in order to create new data
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structures and handle the serialization in RDB files, the rewriting process
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in AOF, the type reporting via the `TYPE` command, and so forth.
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## Overview of native types
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A module exporting a native type is composed of the following parts:
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* The implementation of some kind of new data structure and of commands operating on the new data structure.
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* A set of callbacks that handle: RDB save, RDB load, AOF rewrite, releasing of a value associated with a key (for example, through `DEL`),
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and calculating a value digest (hash) to be used with the `DEBUG DIGEST` command (not implemented).
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* A 9 characters name that is unique to each module native data type.
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* An encoding version, used to persist into RDB files a module-specific data version, so that a module will be able to
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load older representations from RDB files.
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While handling RDB load, save and AOF rewrite may look complex as a first glance, the modules API provides a very
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high level of functionality for handling these tasks, without requiring the user to handle read/write errors, so in practical
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terms, writing a new data structure for Redis is a simple task.
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A **very easy** to understand but complete example of native type implementation
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is available inside the Redis distribution in the `/modules/hellotype.c` file.
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The reader is encouraged to read the documentation by looking at this example
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implementation to see how things are applied in the practice.
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## Registering a new data type
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In order to register a new native type with the Redis core, the module declares a global variable that will hold a reference to the data type.
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The API to register the data type will return a data type reference stored in the global variable.
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static RedisModuleType *MyType;
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#define MYTYPE_ENCODING_VERSION 0
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int RedisModule_OnLoad(RedisModuleCtx *ctx) {
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MyType = RedisModule_CreateDataType("MyType-AZ", MYTYPE_ENCODING_VERSION,
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MyTypeRDBLoad, MyTypeRDBSave, MyTypeAOFRewrite, MyTypeDigest,
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MyTypeFree);
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if (MyType == NULL) return REDISMODULE_ERR;
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}
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A single API call registers the new type, with a number of function pointers passed as arguments. The prototype of
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`RedisModule_CreateDataType` is the following:
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moduleType *RedisModule_CreateDataType(RedisModuleCtx *ctx,
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const char *name, int encver,
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moduleTypeLoadFunc rdb_load,
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moduleTypeSaveFunc rdb_save,
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moduleTypeRewriteFunc aof_rewrite,
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moduleTypeDigestFunc digest,
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moduleTypeFreeFunc free);
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The `ctx` argument is the context received from the `OnLoad` function.
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The type `name` is a 9 character name in the character set that includes
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from `A-Z`, `a-z`, `0-9`, plus the underscore `_` and minus `-` characters.
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Note that **this name must be unique** for each data type in the Redis
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ecosystem, so be creative, use both lower-case and upper case if it makes
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sense, and try to use the convention of mixing the type name with the name
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of the author of the module, to create a 9 character unique name.
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For example if I'm building a *b-tree* data structure and my name is *antirez*
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I'll call my type **btree1-az**. The name, converted to a 64 bit integer,
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is stored inside the RDB file when saving the type, and will be used when the
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RDB data is loaded in order to resolve which module can load the data. If Redis
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finds no matching module, the integer is converted back to a name in order to
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provide some clue to the user about the missing module in order to load
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the data.
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The type name is also used as a reply for the `TYPE` command when called
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with a key holding the registered type.
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The `encver` argument is the encoding version used by the module to store data
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inside the RDB file. For example I can start with an encoding version of 0,
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but later when I release version 2 of my module, I can switch encoding to
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something better. The new module will register with an encoding version of 1,
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so when it saves new RDB files, the new version will be stored on disk. However
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when loading RDB files, the module `rdb_load` method will be called even if
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there is data found for a different encoding version (and the encoding version
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is passed as argument to `rdb_load`), so that the module can still load old
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RDB files.
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The remaining arguments `rdb_load`, `rdb_save`, `aof_rewrite`, `digest` and
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`free` are all callbacks with the following prototypes and uses:
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typedef void *(*RedisModuleTypeLoadFunc)(RedisModuleIO *rdb, int encver);
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typedef void (*RedisModuleTypeSaveFunc)(RedisModuleIO *rdb, void *value);
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typedef void (*RedisModuleTypeRewriteFunc)(RedisModuleIO *aof, RedisModuleString *key, void *value);
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typedef void (*RedisModuleTypeDigestFunc)(RedisModuleDigest *digest, void *value);
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typedef void (*RedisModuleTypeFreeFunc)(void *value);
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* `rdb_load` is called when loading data from the RDB file. It loads data in the same format as `rdb_save` produces.
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* `rdb_save` is called when saving data to the RDB file.
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* `aof_rewrite` is called when the AOF is being rewritten, and the module needs to tell Redis the sequence of commands
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required to recreate the content of a given key.
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* `digest` is called when `DEBUG DIGEST` is executed and a key holding this module type is found. Currently this is not
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yet implemented so the function can be left empty.
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* `free` is called when a key with the module native type is deleted via `DEL` or by other meand, in order to let the
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module reclaim the memory associated with such a value.
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### *Why* modules types require a 9 characters name?
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When Redis persists to RDB files, modules specific data types need to be be persisted as well. RDB files are
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sequences of key-value pairs like the following:
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[1 byte type] [key] [a type specific value]
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The 1 byte type identifies strings, lists, sets, and so forth. In the case
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of modules data, it is set to a special value of `module data`, but of
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course this is not enough, we need the information needed to link a specific
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value with a specific module type that is able to load and handle it.
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So when we save a `type specific value` about a module, we prefix it with
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a 64 bit integer. 64 bits is large enough to store the information needed
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in order to lookup the module that can handle that specific type, but is
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short enough that we can prefix each module value we store inside the RDB
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without making the final RDB file too big. At the same time, this solution
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of prefixing the value with a 64 bit *signature* does not require doing
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strange things like defining in the RDB header a list of modules specific
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types. Everything is pretty simple.
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What you can store in 64 bits in order to identify a given module in
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a reliable way? Well if you build a character set of 64 symbols, you can
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easily store 9 characters of 6 bits, and you are left with 10 bits, that
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are used in order to store the *encoding version* of the type, so that
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the same type can evolve in the future and provide a different and more
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efficient or updated serialization format for RDB files.
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The 64 bit prefix stored before each module value is as follows:
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6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|10
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The first 9 elements are 6-bits characters, the final 10 bits is the
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encoding version.
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When the RDB file is loaded back, it reads the 64 bit value, masks the final
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10 bits, and searches for a matching module in the modules types cache.
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When a match is found, the method that loads the RDB file value is called
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with the 10 bits encoding version as an argument, so that the module knows
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what version of the data layout to load and whether it can support multiple versions.
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Now the interesting thing about all this is that, if instead the module type
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cannot be resolved, since there is no loaded module having this signature,
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we can convert back the 64 bit value into a 9 characters name, and print
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an error to the user that includes the module type name! So that she or he
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immediately realizes what's wrong.
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## Setting and getting keys
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After registering our new data type in the `RedisModule_OnLoad()` function,
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we also need to be able to set Redis keys having as value our native type.
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This normally happens in the context of commands that write data to a key.
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The native types API allow to set and get keys to module native data types,
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and to test if a given key is already associated to a value of a specific data
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type.
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The API uses the normal modules `RedisModule_OpenKey()` low level key access
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interface in order to deal with this. Here is an example of setting a
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native type private data structure to a Redis key:
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RedisModuleKey *key = RedisModule_OpenKey(ctx,keyname,REDISMODULE_WRITE);
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struct some_private_struct *data = createMyDataStructure();
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RedisModule_ModuleTypeSetValue(key,MyType,data);
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The function `RedisModule_ModuleTypeSetValue()` is used with a key handle open
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for writing, and gets three arguments: the key handle, the reference to the
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native type obtained during the type registration, and finally a `void*`
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pointer that contains the private data implementing the module native type.
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Note that Redis has no clues at all about what your data contains. It will
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just call the callbacks you provided during the method registration in order
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to perform operations on the type.
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Similarly we can retrieve the private data from a key using this function:
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struct some_private_struct *data;
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data = RedisModule_ModuleTypeGetValue(key);
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We can also test for a key to have our native type as value:
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if (RedisModule_ModuleTypeGetType(key) == MyType) {
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/* ... do something ... */
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}
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However for the calls to do the right thing, we need to check if the key
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is empty, if it contains a value of the right kind, and so forth. So
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the idiomatic code to implement a command writing to our native type
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would be:
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RedisModuleKey *key = RedisModule_OpenKey(ctx,argv[1],
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REDISMODULE_READ|REDISMODULE_WRITE);
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int type = RedisModule_KeyType(key);
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if (type != REDISMODULE_KEYTYPE_EMPTY &&
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RedisModule_ModuleTypeGetType(key) != MyType)
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{
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return RedisModule_ReplyWithError(ctx,REDISMODULE_ERRORMSG_WRONGTYPE);
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}
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Then, if we successfully verified the key is not of the wrong type, and
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we are going to write to it, we usually want to create a new data structure if
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the key is empty, or retrieve the reference to the value associated to the
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key if there is already one:
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/* Create an empty value object if the key is currently empty. */
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struct some_private_struct *data;
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if (type == REDISMODULE_KEYTYPE_EMPTY) {
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data = createMyDataStructure();
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RedisModule_ModuleTypeSetValue(key,MyTyke,data);
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} else {
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data = RedisModule_ModuleTypeGetValue(key);
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}
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/* Do something with 'data'... */
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## Free method
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As already mentioned, when Redis needs to free a key holding a native type
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value, it needs help from the module in order to release the memory. This
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is the reason why we pass a `free` callback during the type registration:
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typedef void (*RedisModuleTypeFreeFunc)(void *value);
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A trivial implementation of the free method can be something like this,
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assuming our data structure is composed of a single allocation:
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void MyTypeFreeCallback(void *value) {
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RedisModule_Free(value);
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}
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However an actual implementation would call some function that performs a more
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complex memory deallocation, by casting the void pointer to some structure
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and freeing all the resources composing the value.
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## RDB load and save methods
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The RDB save and load callbacks need to create and load a
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representation of the data type on disk. Redis offers a high level API
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that can automatically store the following types inside the RDB file:
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* Unsigned 64 bit integers.
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* Signed 64 bit integers.
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* Doubles.
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* Strings.
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It is up to the module to find a viable representation using the above base
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types. However, note that while the integer and double values are stored
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and loaded in an architecture and *endianess* agnostic way, if you use
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the raw string save API to save a structure on disk, for example, you
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have to implement those details yourself.
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This is the list of functions performing RDB save and load:
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void RedisModule_SaveUnsigned(RedisModuleIO *io, uint64_t value);
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uint64_t RedisModule_LoadUnsigned(RedisModuleIO *io);
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void RedisModule_SaveSigned(RedisModuleIO *io, int64_t value);
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int64_t RedisModule_LoadSigned(RedisModuleIO *io);
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void RedisModule_SaveString(RedisModuleIO *io, RedisModuleString *s);
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void RedisModule_SaveStringBuffer(RedisModuleIO *io, const char *str, size_t len);
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RedisModuleString *RedisModule_LoadString(RedisModuleIO *io);
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char *RedisModule_LoadStringBuffer(RedisModuleIO *io, size_t *lenptr);
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void RedisModule_SaveDouble(RedisModuleIO *io, double value);
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double RedisModule_LoadDouble(RedisModuleIO *io);
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The functions don't require any error checking from the module, that can
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always assume calls succeed.
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As an example, imagine a native type that implements an array of
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double values, with the following structure:
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struct double_array {
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size_t count;
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double *values;
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};
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The `rdb_save` method may look like the following:
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void DoubleArrayRDBSave(RedisModuleIO *io, void *ptr) {
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struct dobule_array *da = ptr;
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RedisModule_SaveUnsigned(io,da->count);
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for (size_t j = 0; j < da->count; j++)
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RedisModule_SaveDouble(io,da->values[j]);
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}
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We stored the number of elements followed by each double
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value. So when later when loading the structure in the `rdb_load`
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method we'll do something like this:
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void *DoubleArrayRDBLoad(RedisModuleIO *io, int encver) {
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if (encver != DOUBLE_ARRAY_ENC_VER) {
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/* We should actually log an error here, or try to implement
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the ability to load older versions of our data structure. */
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return NULL;
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}
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struct double_array *da;
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da = RedisModule_Alloc(sizeof(*da));
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da->count = RedisModule_LoadUnsigned(io);
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da->values = RedisModule_Alloc(da->count * sizeof(double));
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for (size_t j = 0; j < da->count; j++)
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da->values = RedisModule_LoadDouble(io);
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return da;
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}
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The load callback just reconstructed the data structure from the data
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store in the RDB file.
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Note that while there is no error handling on the API that writes and reads
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from disk, the load callback may still return NULL on errors in case what
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it reads does not look correct. Redis will just panic in that case.
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AOF rewrite
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---
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void RedisModule_EmitAOF(RedisModuleIO *io, const char *cmdname, const char *fmt, ...);
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Handling multiple encodings
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---
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WORK IN PROGRESS
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Allocating memory
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---
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Modules data types should try to use `RedisModule_Alloc()` functions family
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in order to allocate, reallocate and release heap memory used to implement the native data structures
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(see the other Redis Modules documentation for detailed information).
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There are more advantages than simple accounting for the memory used by the module:
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* Redis uses the `jemalloc` allocator, that often prevents fragmentation problems that could be caused by using the libc allocator.
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* When loading strings from the RDB file, the native types API can return strings allocated directly with `RedisModule_Alloc()`,
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enabling the module to directly link this memory into the data structure representation, avoiding a useless copy of the data.
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Even when using external libraries that implement data structures, the
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allocation functions provided by the module API are perfectly compatible with
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`malloc()`, `realloc()`, `free()` and `strdup()`, so converting the libraries
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in order to use these functions should be trivial.
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In the case of a 3rd party external library that uses libc `malloc()`, a convenient
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approach would use simple macros in order to replace the libc calls with the Redis API calls. Something like this could work:
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#define malloc RedisModule_Alloc
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#define realloc RedisModule_Realloc
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#define free RedisModule_Free
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#define strdup RedisModule_Strdup
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Note that **mixing libc calls with Redis API calls will result in trouble and crashes**, so when replacing calls using
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||||
macros, make sure that all the calls are correctly replaced, and that the code with the substituted calls will never,
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||||
for example, attempt to call `RedisModule_Free()` with a pointer allocated using libc `malloc()`.
|
Loading…
Reference in New Issue