DiceDB

DiceDB is an in-memory, real-time, and reactive database with Redis and SQL support optimized for modern hardware and building real-time applications.

We are looking for Early Design Partners, so, if you want to evaluate DiceDB, block our calendar. always up for a chat.

Note: DiceDB is still in development and it supports a subset of Redis commands. So, please do not use it in production. But, feel free to go through the open issues and contribute to help us speed up the development.

Want to contribute?

We have multiple repositories where you can contribute. So, as per your interest, you can pick one and build a deeper understanding of the project on the go.

dicedb/dice for core database features and engine / Stack - Go
dicedb/playground-mono backend APIs for DiceDB playground / Stack - Go
dicedb/playground-web frontend for DiceDB playground / Stack - NextJS

How is it different from Redis?

Although DiceDB is a drop-in replacement of Redis, which means almost no learning curve and switching does not require any code change, it still differs in two key aspects and they are

DiceDB is multithreaded and follows shared-nothing architecture.
DiceDB supports a new command called QWATCH that lets clients listen to a SQL query and get notified in real-time whenever something changes.

With this, you can build truly real-time applications like Leaderboard with simple SQL query.

Get started

Using Docker

The easiest way to get started with DiceDB is using Docker by running the following command.

$ docker run dicedb/dicedb

The above command will start the DiceDB server running locally on the port 7379 and you can connect to it using DiceDB CLI and SDKs, or even Redis CLIs and SDKs.

Note: Given it is a drop-in replacement of Redis, you can also use any Redis CLI and SDK to connect to DiceDB.

Multi-Threading Mode (Experimental)

Multi-threading is currently under active development. To run the server with multi-threading enabled, follow these steps:

$ git clone https://github.com/dicedb/dice
$ cd dice
$ go run main.go --enable-multithreading=true

Note: Only the following commands are optimised for multithreaded execution: PING, AUTH, SET, GET, GETSET, ABORT

Setting up DiceDB from source for development and contributions

To run DiceDB for local development or running from source, you will need

Golang
Any of the below supported platform environment:
1. Linux based environment
2. OSX (Darwin) based environment
3. WSL under Windows

$ git clone https://github.com/dicedb/dice
$ cd dice
$ go run main.go

Install GoLangCI

$ sudo su
$ curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/golangci/golangci-lint/master/install.sh | sh -s -- -b /bin v1.60.1

Live Development Server

DiceDB provides a hot-reloading development environment, which allows you to instantly view your code changes in a live server. This functionality is supported by Air

To Install Air on your system you have the following options.

If you're on go 1.22+

go install github.com/air-verse/air@latest

Install the Air binary

# binary will be installed at $(go env GOPATH)/bin/air
curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/air-verse/air/master/install.sh | sh -s -- -b $(go env GOPATH)/bin

Once air is installed you can verify the installation using the command air -v

To run the live DiceDB server for local development:

$ git clone https://github.com/dicedb/dice
$ cd dice
$ DICE_ENV=dev air

The DICE_ENV environment variable is used set the environment, by default it is treated as production. dev is used to get pretty printed logs and lower log level.

Local Setup with Custom Config

By default, DiceDB will look for the configuration file at /etc/dice/config.toml. (Linux, Darwin, and WSL)

$ # set up configuration file # (optional but recommended)
$ sudo mkdir -p /etc/dice
$ sudo chown root:$USER /etc/dice
$ sudo chmod 775 /etc/dice # or 777 if you are the only user
$ git clone https://github.com/DiceDB/dice.git
$ cd dice
$ go run main.go -init-config

For Windows Users:

If you're using Windows, it is recommended to use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) or WSL 2 to run the above commands seamlessly in a Linux-like environment.

Alternatively, you can:

Create a directory at C:\ProgramData\dice and run the following command to generate the configuration file:

go run main.go -init-config

For a smoother experience, we highly recommend using WSL.

Additional Configuration Options:

If you'd like to use a different location, you can specify a custom configuration file path with the -c flag:

go run main.go -c /path/to/config.toml

If you'd like to output the configuration file to a specific location, you can specify a custom output path with the -o flag:

go run main.go -o /path/of/output/dir

Setting up CLI

The best way to connect to DiceDB is using DiceDB CLI and you can install it by running the following command.

$ pip install dicedb-cli

Because DiceDB speaks Redis dialect, you can connect to it with any Redis Client and SDK also. But if you are planning to use the QWATCH feature then you need to use the DiceDB CLI.

Running Tests

Unit tests and integration tests are essential for ensuring correctness and in the case of DiceDB, both types of tests are available to validate its functionality.

For unit testing, you can execute individual unit tests by specifying the name of the test function using the TEST_FUNC environment variable and running the make unittest-one command. Alternatively, running make unittest will execute all unit tests.

Executing one unit test

$ TEST_FUNC=<name of the test function> make unittest-one
$ TEST_FUNC=TestByteList make unittest-one

Running all unit tests

$ make unittest

Integration tests, on the other hand, involve starting up the DiceDB server and running a series of commands to verify the expected end state and output. To execute a single integration test, you can set the TEST_FUNC environment variable to the name of the test function and run make test-one. Running make test will execute all integration tests.

Executing a single integration test

$ TEST_FUNC=<name of the test function> make test-one
$ TEST_FUNC=TestSet make test-one

Running all integration tests

$ make test

Work to add more tests in DiceDB is in progress, and we will soon port the test Redis suite to this codebase to ensure full compatibility.

Running Benchmark

$ go test -test.bench <pattern>
$ go test -test.bench BenchmarkListRedis -benchmem

Getting Started

To get started with building and contributing to DiceDB, please refer to the issues created in this repository.

Docs

We use Astro framework to power the dicedb.io website and Starlight to power the docs. Once you have NodeJS installed, fire the following commands to get your local version of dicedb.io running.

$ cd docs
$ npm install
$ npm run dev

Once the server starts, visit http://localhost:4321/ in your favourite browser. This runs with a hot reload which means any changes you make in the website and the documentation can be instantly viewed on the browser.

To build and deploy

$ cd docs
$ npm run build

Docs directory structure

docs/src/content/docs/commands is where all the commands are documented
docs/src/content/docs/tutorials is where all the tutorials are documented

The story

DiceDB started as a re-implementation of Redis in Golang and the idea was to - build a DB from scratch and understand the micro-nuances that come with its implementation. The database does not aim to replace Redis, instead, it will fit in and optimize itself for multicore computations running on a single-threaded event loop.

How to contribute

The Code Contribution Guidelines are published at CONTRIBUTING.md; please read them before you start making any changes. This would allow us to have a consistent standard of coding practices and developer experience.

Contributors can join the Discord Server for quick collaboration.

Contributors

Troubleshoot

Forcefully killing the process

$ sudo netstat -atlpn | grep :7379
$ sudo kill -9 <process_id>

wushiling50/dice