DiceDB

DiceDB is an open source, redis-compliant, reactive, scalable, highly available, unified cache optimized for modern hardware.

Caution

DiceDB is under active development and supports a subset of Redis commands. Inconsistent behavior is expected. 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/dicedb-cli command line interface for DiceDB / Stack - Go
• dicedb/playground-mono backend APIs for DiceDB playground / Stack - Go
• dicedb/alloy frontend and marketplace 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

1. DiceDB is multithreaded and follows shared-nothing architecture.
2. DiceDB supports .WATCH commands like GET.WATCH, ZRANGE.WATCH, etc. that lets clients listen to data changes and get the result set in real-time whenever something changes.

.WATCH commands are pretty handy when it comes to building truly real-time applications like Leaderboard.

Get started

Setting up DiceDB with Docker

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

docker run -p 7379:7379 dicedb/dicedb --enable-watch

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.

Tip

Since DiceDB is a drop-in replacement for Redis, you can also use any Redis CLI and SDK to connect to DiceDB.

Setting up DiceDB from source for development and contributions

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

1. Golang
2. Any of the below supported platform environments:
   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 --enable-watch

You can skip passing the flag if you are not working with .WATCH feature.

1. 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.

1. If you're on go 1.22+

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

1. 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
air

Local Setup with Custom Config

By default, DiceDB will look for the configuration file at ./dicedb.conf. (Linux, Darwin, and WSL)

Tip

If you want to use a custom configuration file, you can specify the path using the -c flag. and to output the configuration file to a specific location, you can specify the output dir path using the -o flag.

Setting up CLI

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

sudo su
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DiceDB/dicedb-cli/refs/heads/master/install.sh | sh

Client Compatibility

DiceDB is fully compatible with Redis protocol, allowing you to connect using any existing Redis client or SDK.

Note

The .WATCH feature is only accessible through the DiceDB CLI. If you are working on unsupported OS (as per above script), you can always follow the installation instructions mentioned in the dicedb/cli repository.

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

make run_benchmark

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.

Docs directory structure

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

The Story

DiceDB started as a re-implementation of Redis in Golang with the idea of building a DB from scratch to understand the micro-nuances that come with its implementation. DiceDB isn’t just another database; it’s a platform purpose-built for the real-time era. As real-time systems become increasingly prevalent in modern applications, DiceDB’s hyper-optimized architecture is positioned to power the next generation of user experiences.

How to contribute

The Code Contribution Guidelines are published at CONTRIBUTING/README.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>