bbolt
=====
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bbolt is a fork of [Ben Johnson's][gh_ben] [Bolt][bolt] key/value
store. The purpose of this fork is to provide the Go community with an active
maintenance and development target for Bolt; the goal is improved reliability
and stability. bbolt includes bug fixes, performance enhancements, and features
not found in Bolt while preserving backwards compatibility with the Bolt API.
Bolt is a pure Go key/value store inspired by [Howard Chu's][hyc_symas]
[LMDB project][lmdb]. The goal of the project is to provide a simple,
fast, and reliable database for projects that don't require a full database
server such as Postgres or MySQL.
Since Bolt is meant to be used as such a low-level piece of functionality,
simplicity is key. The API will be small and only focus on getting values
and setting values. That's it.
[gh_ben]: https://github.com/benbjohnson
[bolt]: https://github.com/boltdb/bolt
[hyc_symas]: https://twitter.com/hyc_symas
[lmdb]: http://symas.com/mdb/
## Project Status
Bolt is stable, the API is fixed, and the file format is fixed. Full unit
test coverage and randomized black box testing are used to ensure database
consistency and thread safety. Bolt is currently used in high-load production
environments serving databases as large as 1TB. Many companies such as
Shopify and Heroku use Bolt-backed services every day.
## Project versioning
bbolt uses [semantic versioning](http://semver.org).
API should not change between patch and minor releases.
New minor versions may add additional features to the API.
## Table of Contents
- [Getting Started](#getting-started)
- [Installing](#installing)
- [Opening a database](#opening-a-database)
- [Transactions](#transactions)
- [Read-write transactions](#read-write-transactions)
- [Read-only transactions](#read-only-transactions)
- [Batch read-write transactions](#batch-read-write-transactions)
- [Managing transactions manually](#managing-transactions-manually)
- [Using buckets](#using-buckets)
- [Using key/value pairs](#using-keyvalue-pairs)
- [Autoincrementing integer for the bucket](#autoincrementing-integer-for-the-bucket)
- [Iterating over keys](#iterating-over-keys)
- [Prefix scans](#prefix-scans)
- [Range scans](#range-scans)
- [ForEach()](#foreach)
- [Nested buckets](#nested-buckets)
- [Database backups](#database-backups)
- [Statistics](#statistics)
- [Read-Only Mode](#read-only-mode)
- [Mobile Use (iOS/Android)](#mobile-use-iosandroid)
- [Resources](#resources)
- [Comparison with other databases](#comparison-with-other-databases)
- [Postgres, MySQL, & other relational databases](#postgres-mysql--other-relational-databases)
- [LevelDB, RocksDB](#leveldb-rocksdb)
- [LMDB](#lmdb)
- [Caveats & Limitations](#caveats--limitations)
- [Reading the Source](#reading-the-source)
- [Other Projects Using Bolt](#other-projects-using-bolt)
## Getting Started
### Installing
To start using Bolt, install Go and run `go get`:
```sh
$ go get go.etcd.io/bbolt/...
```
This will retrieve the library and install the `bolt` command line utility into
your `$GOBIN` path.
### Importing bbolt
To use bbolt as an embedded key-value store, import as:
```go
import bolt "go.etcd.io/bbolt"
db, err := bolt.Open(path, 0666, nil)
if err != nil {
return err
}
defer db.Close()
```
### Opening a database
The top-level object in Bolt is a `DB`. It is represented as a single file on
your disk and represents a consistent snapshot of your data.
To open your database, simply use the `bolt.Open()` function:
```go
package main
import (
"log"
bolt "go.etcd.io/bbolt"
)
func main() {
// Open the my.db data file in your current directory.
// It will be created if it doesn't exist.
db, err := bolt.Open("my.db", 0600, nil)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
defer db.Close()
...
}
```
Please note that Bolt obtains a file lock on the data file so multiple processes
cannot open the same database at the same time. Opening an already open Bolt
database will cause it to hang until the other process closes it. To prevent
an indefinite wait you can pass a timeout option to the `Open()` function:
```go
db, err := bolt.Open("my.db", 0600, &bolt.Options{Timeout: 1 * time.Second})
```
### Transactions
Bolt allows only one read-write transaction at a time but allows as many
read-only transactions as you want at a time. Each transaction has a consistent
view of the data as it existed when the transaction started.
Individual transactions and all objects created from them (e.g. buckets, keys)
are not thread safe. To work with data in multiple goroutines you must start
a transaction for each one or use locking to ensure only one goroutine accesses
a transaction at a time. Creating transaction from the `DB` is thread safe.
Transactions should not depend on one another and generally shouldn't be opened
simultaneously in the same goroutine. This can cause a deadlock as the read-write
transaction needs to periodically re-map the data file but it cannot do so while
any read-only transaction is open. Even a nested read-only transaction can cause
a deadlock, as the child transaction can block the parent transaction from releasing
its resources.
#### Read-write transactions
To start a read-write transaction, you can use the `DB.Update()` function:
```go
err := db.Update(func(tx *bolt.Tx) error {
...
return nil
})
```
Inside the closure, you have a consistent view of the database. You commit the
transaction by returning `nil` at the end. You can also rollback the transaction
at any point by returning an error. All database operations are allowed inside
a read-write transaction.
Always check the return error as it will report any disk failures that can cause
your transaction to not complete. If you return an error within your closure
it will be passed through.
#### Read-only transactions
To start a read-only transaction, you can use the `DB.View()` function:
```go
err := db.View(func(tx *bolt.Tx) error {
...
return nil
})
```
You also get a consistent view of the database within this closure, however,
no mutating operations are allowed within a read-only transaction. You can only
retrieve buckets, retrieve values, and copy the database within a read-only
transaction.
#### Batch read-write transactions
Each `DB.Update()` waits for disk to commit the writes. This overhead
can be minimized by combining multiple updates with the `DB.Batch()`
function:
```go
err := db.Batch(func(tx *bolt.Tx) error {
...
return nil
})
```
Concurrent Batch calls are opportunistically combined into larger
transactions. Batch is only useful when there are multiple goroutines
calling it.
The trade-off is that `Batch` can call the given
function multiple times, if parts of the transaction fail. The
function must be idempotent and side effects must take effect only
after a successful return from `DB.Batch()`.
For example: don't display messages from inside the function, instead
set variables in the enclosing scope:
```go
var id uint64
err := db.Batch(func(tx *bolt.Tx) error {
// Find last key in bucket, decod