(not) a Redis

A toy implementation of a Redis-like server in C++. This is a learning project for me to understand how Redis works internally. It is not intended for production use.

Thanks to Build-your-own-X repository for helping me get started with this project!

Building

Requirements:

A C++17 compatible compiler (e.g., g++, clang++)
CMake 3.10 or higher
Python 3.10 or higher (for the client)

cmake . && make

Now you can run the server:

./my_own_redis

Client

In Build-your-own-X client and server were written on C/C++. But I decided to write a simple client in Python for easier testing and just because I like Python.

You can run the client like this:

uv run ./client.py

# Help
uv run ./client.py --help

Server protocol

The server uses a simple binary protocol over TCP. Each command is sent as:

4 bytes: total length of the command (excluding this length field)
4 bytes: number of arguments (N)
For each argument:
- 4 bytes: length of the argument (L)
- L bytes: argument data

The server responds with:

4 bytes: total length of the response (excluding this length field)
4 bytes: status code (0 = OK, 2 = NX, 1 = ERR)
Remaining bytes: response message (if any)

Commands

Currently supported commands:

SET key value: Sets the value for the given key.
GET key: Gets the value for the given key.
DEL key: Deletes the given key.

Afterwords

I don't plan to make this project more complex, but I might add some features in the future. And I don't know if you would find this project useful, but feel free to use it as a learning resource or a starting point for your own projects! Enjoy coding! Love yourself! Be happy! ☺️

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