This README is just a fast quick start document. You can find more detailed documentation at redis.io.
What is Redis?
Install command: brew install redis. Also known as: redis@6.2. Persistent key-value database, with built-in net interface. Install and config Redis on macOS using Homebrew Using Homebrew will save you lot of times in setting up and configuring the development environment on macOS. If you don’t have it in your Mac, try installing using the guideline here. Starting Redis as a service on OS X with Homebrew. Ask Question Asked 5 years, 5 months ago. Active 4 years, 1 month ago. Viewed 8k times 5. Install Redis via Homebrew. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets. Installing Redis using Homebrew on Mac Homebrew is a package manager for Mac OS similar to apt-get in Linux for installing any software. If you don't have it installed on your Mac then you can follow this guide to install Homebrew. Once, installed you can execute below command on the termonal.
Redis is often referred to as a data structures server. What this means is that Redis provides access to mutable data structures via a set of commands, which are sent using a server-client model with TCP sockets and a simple protocol. So different processes can query and modify the same data structures in a shared way.
Data structures implemented into Redis have a few special properties:
- Redis cares to store them on disk, even if they are always served and modified into the server memory. This means that Redis is fast, but that it is also non-volatile.
- The implementation of data structures emphasizes memory efficiency, so data structures inside Redis will likely use less memory compared to the same data structure modelled using a high-level programming language.
- Redis offers a number of features that are natural to find in a database, like replication, tunable levels of durability, clustering, and high availability.
Another good example is to think of Redis as a more complex version of memcached, where the operations are not just SETs and GETs, but operations that work with complex data types like Lists, Sets, ordered data structures, and so forth.
If you want to know more, this is a list of selected starting points:
- Introduction to Redis data types. http://redis.io/topics/data-types-intro
- Try Redis directly inside your browser. http://try.redis.io
- The full list of Redis commands. http://redis.io/commands
- There is much more inside the official Redis documentation. http://redis.io/documentation
Building Redis
Redis can be compiled and used on Linux, OSX, OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD.We support big endian and little endian architectures, and both 32 bitand 64 bit systems.
It may compile on Solaris derived systems (for instance SmartOS) but oursupport for this platform is best effort and Redis is not guaranteed towork as well as in Linux, OSX, and *BSD.
It is as simple as:
To build with TLS support, you'll need OpenSSL development libraries (e.g.libssl-dev on Debian/Ubuntu) and run:
To build with systemd support, you'll need systemd development libraries (suchas libsystemd-dev on Debian/Ubuntu or systemd-devel on CentOS) and run:
You can run a 32 bit Redis binary using:
After building Redis, it is a good idea to test it using:
If TLS is built, running the tests with TLS enabled (you will need tcl-tls
installed):
Fixing build problems with dependencies or cached build options
Redis has some dependencies which are included in the deps
directory.make
does not automatically rebuild dependencies even if something inthe source code of dependencies changes.
When you update the source code with git pull
or when code inside thedependencies tree is modified in any other way, make sure to use the followingcommand in order to really clean everything and rebuild from scratch:
This will clean: jemalloc, lua, hiredis, linenoise.
Also if you force certain build options like 32bit target, no C compileroptimizations (for debugging purposes), and other similar build time options,those options are cached indefinitely until you issue a make distclean
command.
Fixing problems building 32 bit binaries
If after building Redis with a 32 bit target you need to rebuild itwith a 64 bit target, or the other way around, you need to perform amake distclean
in the root directory of the Redis distribution.
In case of build errors when trying to build a 32 bit binary of Redis, trythe following steps:
- Install the package libc6-dev-i386 (also try g++-multilib).
- Try using the following command line instead of
make 32bit
:make CFLAGS='-m32 -march=native' LDFLAGS='-m32'
Allocator
Selecting a non-default memory allocator when building Redis is done by settingthe MALLOC
environment variable. Redis is compiled and linked against libcmalloc by default, with the exception of jemalloc being the default on Linuxsystems. This default was picked because jemalloc has proven to have fewerfragmentation problems than libc malloc.
To force compiling against libc malloc, use:
To compile against jemalloc on Mac OS X systems, use:
Monotonic clock
By default, Redis will build using the POSIX clock_gettime function as themonotonic clock source. On most modern systems, the internal processor clockcan be used to improve performance. Cautions can be found here:http://oliveryang.net/2015/09/pitfalls-of-TSC-usage/
To build with support for the processor's internal instruction clock, use:
Verbose build
Redis will build with a user-friendly colorized output by default.If you want to see a more verbose output, use the following:
Running Redis
To run Redis with the default configuration, just type:
If you want to provide your redis.conf, you have to run it using an additionalparameter (the path of the configuration file):
It is possible to alter the Redis configuration by passing parameters directlyas options using the command line. Examples:
All the options in redis.conf are also supported as options using the commandline, with exactly the same name.
Running Redis with TLS:
Please consult the TLS.md file for more information onhow to use Redis with TLS.
Playing with Redis
You can use redis-cli to play with Redis. Start a redis-server instance,then in another terminal try the following:
You can find the list of all the available commands at http://redis.io/commands.
Installing Redis
In order to install Redis binaries into /usr/local/bin, just use: Alternatives to office 365.
You can use make PREFIX=/some/other/directory install
if you wish to use adifferent destination.
Make install will just install binaries in your system, but will not configureinit scripts and configuration files in the appropriate place. This is notneeded if you just want to play a bit with Redis, but if you are installingit the proper way for a production system, we have a script that does thisfor Ubuntu and Debian systems:
Note: install_server.sh
will not work on Mac OSX; it is built for Linux only.
The script will ask you a few questions and will setup everything you needto run Redis properly as a background daemon that will start again onsystem reboots.
You'll be able to stop and start Redis using the script named/etc/init.d/redis_<portnumber>
, for instance /etc/init.d/redis_6379
.
Code contributions
Note: By contributing code to the Redis project in any form, including sendinga pull request via Github, a code fragment or patch via private email orpublic discussion groups, you agree to release your code under the termsof the BSD license that you can find in the COPYING file included in the Redissource distribution.
Please see the CONTRIBUTING file in this source distribution for moreinformation, including details on our process for security bugs/vulnerabilities.
If you are reading this README you are likely in front of a Github pageor you just untarred the Redis distribution tar ball. In both the casesyou are basically one step away from the source code, so here we explainthe Redis source code layout, what is in each file as a general idea, themost important functions and structures inside the Redis server and so forth.We keep all the discussion at a high level without digging into the detailssince this document would be huge otherwise and our code base changescontinuously, but a general idea should be a good starting point tounderstand more. Moreover most of the code is heavily commented and easyto follow.
Source code layout
The Redis root directory just contains this README, the Makefile whichcalls the real Makefile inside the src
directory and an exampleconfiguration for Redis and Sentinel. You can find a few shellscripts that are used in order to execute the Redis, Redis Cluster andRedis Sentinel unit tests, which are implemented inside the tests
directory.
Inside the root are the following important directories:
src
: contains the Redis implementation, written in C.tests
: contains the unit tests, implemented in Tcl.deps
: contains libraries Redis uses. Everything needed to compile Redis is inside this directory; your system just needs to providelibc
, a POSIX compatible interface and a C compiler. Notablydeps
contains a copy ofjemalloc
, which is the default allocator of Redis under Linux. Note that underdeps
there are also things which started with the Redis project, but for which the main repository is notredis/redis
.
There are a few more directories but they are not very important for our goalshere. We'll focus mostly on src
, where the Redis implementation is contained,exploring what there is inside each file. The order in which files areexposed is the logical one to follow in order to disclose different layersof complexity incrementally.
Note: lately Redis was refactored quite a bit. Function names and filenames have been changed, so you may find that this documentation reflects theunstable
branch more closely. For instance, in Redis 3.0 the server.c
and server.h
files were named redis.c
and redis.h
. However the overallstructure is the same. Keep in mind that all the new developments and pullrequests should be performed against the unstable
branch.
server.h
The simplest way to understand how a program works is to understand thedata structures it uses. So we'll start from the main header file ofRedis, which is server.h
.
All the server configuration and in general all the shared state isdefined in a global structure called server
, of type struct redisServer
.A few important fields in this structure are:
server.db
is an array of Redis databases, where data is stored.server.commands
is the command table.server.clients
is a linked list of clients connected to the server.server.master
is a special client, the master, if the instance is a replica.
Python message_filters. There are tons of other fields. Most fields are commented directly insidethe structure definition.
Another important Redis data structure is the one defining a client.In the past it was called redisClient
, now just client
. The structurehas many fields, here we'll just show the main ones:
The client structure defines a connected client:
- The
fd
field is the client socket file descriptor. argc
andargv
are populated with the command the client is executing, so that functions implementing a given Redis command can read the arguments.querybuf
accumulates the requests from the client, which are parsed by the Redis server according to the Redis protocol and executed by calling the implementations of the commands the client is executing.reply
andbuf
are dynamic and static buffers that accumulate the replies the server sends to the client. These buffers are incrementally written to the socket as soon as the file descriptor is writeable.
As you can see in the client structure above, arguments in a commandare described as robj
structures. The following is the full robj
structure, which defines a Redis object:
Basically this structure can represent all the basic Redis data types likestrings, lists, sets, sorted sets and so forth. The interesting thing is thatit has a type
field, so that it is possible to know what type a givenobject has, and a refcount
, so that the same object can be referencedin multiple places without allocating it multiple times. Finally the ptr
field points to the actual representation of the object, which might varyeven for the same type, depending on the encoding
used.
Redis objects are used extensively in the Redis internals, however in orderto avoid the overhead of indirect accesses, recently in many placeswe just use plain dynamic strings not wrapped inside a Redis object.
server.c
This is the entry point of the Redis server, where the main()
functionis defined. The following are the most important steps in order to startupthe Redis server.
initServerConfig()
sets up the default values of theserver
structure.initServer()
allocates the data structures needed to operate, setup the listening socket, and so forth.aeMain()
starts the event loop which listens for new connections.
There are two special functions called periodically by the event loop:
serverCron()
is called periodically (according toserver.hz
frequency), and performs tasks that must be performed from time to time, like checking for timed out clients.beforeSleep()
is called every time the event loop fired, Redis served a few requests, and is returning back into the event loop.
Inside server.c you can find code that handles other vital things of the Redis server:
call()
is used in order to call a given command in the context of a given client.activeExpireCycle()
handles eviction of keys with a time to live set via theEXPIRE
command.freeMemoryIfNeeded()
is called when a new write command should be performed but Redis is out of memory according to themaxmemory
directive.- The global variable
redisCommandTable
defines all the Redis commands, specifying the name of the command, the function implementing the command, the number of arguments required, and other properties of each command.
networking.c
This file defines all the I/O functions with clients, masters and replicas(which in Redis are just special clients):
createClient()
allocates and initializes a new client.- the
addReply*()
family of functions are used by command implementations in order to append data to the client structure, that will be transmitted to the client as a reply for a given command executed. writeToClient()
transmits the data pending in the output buffers to the client and is called by the writable event handlersendReplyToClient()
.readQueryFromClient()
is the readable event handler and accumulates data read from the client into the query buffer.processInputBuffer()
is the entry point in order to parse the client query buffer according to the Redis protocol. Once commands are ready to be processed, it callsprocessCommand()
which is defined insideserver.c
in order to actually execute the command.freeClient()
deallocates, disconnects and removes a client.
Homebrew Redis Start
aof.c and rdb.c
As you can guess from the names, these files implement the RDB and AOFpersistence for Redis. Redis uses a persistence model based on the fork()
system call in order to create a thread with the same (shared) memorycontent of the main Redis thread. This secondary thread dumps the contentof the memory on disk. This is used by rdb.c
to create the snapshotson disk and by aof.c
in order to perform the AOF rewrite when theappend only file gets too big.
The implementation inside aof.c
has additional functions in order toimplement an API that allows commands to append new commands into the AOFfile as clients execute them.
The call()
function defined inside server.c
is responsible for callingthe functions that in turn will write the commands into the AOF.
Homebrew Redis Cli
db.c
Certain Redis commands operate on specific data types; others are general.Examples of generic commands are DEL
and EXPIRE
. They operate on keysand not on their values specifically. All those generic commands aredefined inside db.c
.
Moreover db.c
implements an API in order to perform certain operationson the Redis dataset without directly accessing the internal data structures.
The most important functions inside db.c
which are used in many commandimplementations are the following:
lookupKeyRead()
andlookupKeyWrite()
are used in order to get a pointer to the value associated to a given key, orNULL
if the key does not exist.dbAdd()
and its higher level counterpartsetKey()
create a new key in a Redis database.dbDelete()
removes a key and its associated value.emptyDb()
removes an entire single database or all the databases defined.
The rest of the file implements the generic commands exposed to the client.
object.c
The robj
structure defining Redis objects was already described. Insideobject.c
there are all the functions that operate with Redis objects ata basic level, like functions to allocate new objects, handle the referencecounting and so forth. Notable functions inside this file:
incrRefCount()
anddecrRefCount()
are used in order to increment or decrement an object reference count. When it drops to 0 the object is finally freed.createObject()
allocates a new object. There are also specialized functions to allocate string objects having a specific content, likecreateStringObjectFromLongLong()
and similar functions.
Redis Homebrew App
This file also implements the OBJECT
command.
replication.c
Redis Homebrew Free
This is one of the most complex files inside Redis, it is recommended toapproach it only after getting a bit familiar with the rest of the code base.In this file there is the implementation of both the master and replica roleof Redis.
One of the most important functions inside this file is replicationFeedSlaves()
that writes commands to the clients representing replica instances connectedto our master, so that the replicas can get the writes performed by the clients:this way their data set will remain synchronized with the one in the master.
This file also implements both the SYNC
and PSYNC
commands that areused in order to perform the first synchronization between masters andreplicas, or to continue the replication after a disconnection.
Other C files
t_hash.c
,t_list.c
,t_set.c
,t_string.c
,t_zset.c
andt_stream.c
contains the implementation of the Redis data types. They implement both an API to access a given data type, and the client command implementations for these data types.ae.c
implements the Redis event loop, it's a self contained library which is simple to read and understand.sds.c
is the Redis string library, check http://github.com/antirez/sds for more information.anet.c
is a library to use POSIX networking in a simpler way compared to the raw interface exposed by the kernel.dict.c
is an implementation of a non-blocking hash table which rehashes incrementally.scripting.c
implements Lua scripting. It is completely self-contained and isolated from the rest of the Redis implementation and is simple enough to understand if you are familiar with the Lua API.cluster.c
implements the Redis Cluster. Probably a good read only after being very familiar with the rest of the Redis code base. If you want to readcluster.c
make sure to read the Redis Cluster specification.
Anatomy of a Redis command
Homebrew Redis Logs
All the Redis commands are defined in the following way:
The command is then referenced inside server.c
in the command table:
In the above example 2
is the number of arguments the command takes,while 'rtF'
are the command flags, as documented in the command tabletop comment inside server.c
.
After the command operates in some way, it returns a reply to the client,usually using addReply()
or a similar function defined inside networking.c
.
There are tons of command implementations inside the Redis source codethat can serve as examples of actual commands implementations. Writinga few toy commands can be a good exercise to get familiar with the code base.
There are also many other files not described here, but it is useless tocover everything. We just want to help you with the first steps.Eventually you'll find your way inside the Redis code base :-)
Enjoy!
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