Developing RediSearch

Developing RediSearch involves setting up the development environment (which can be either Linux-based or macOS-based), building RediSearch, running tests and benchmarks, and debuugging both the RediSearch module and its tests.

Cloning the git repository

By invoking the following command, RediSearch module and its submodules are cloned:

  1. git clone --recursive https://github.com/RediSearch/RediSearch.git

Working in an isolated environment

There are several reasons to develop in an isolated environment, like keeping your workstation clean, and developing for a different Linux distribution. The most general option for an isolated environment is a virtual machine (it’s very easy to set one up using Vagrant ). Docker is even a more agile solution, as it offers an almost instant solution:

  1. search=$(docker run -d -it -v $PWD:/build debian:buster bash)
  2. docker exec -it $search bash

Then, from whithin the container, cd /build and go on as usual. In this mode, all installations remain in the scope of the Docker container. Upon exiting the container, you can either re-invoke the container with the above docker exec or commit the state of the container to an image and re-invoke it on a later stage:

  1. docker commit $search redisearch1
  2. docker stop $search
  3. search=$(docker run -d -it -v $PWD:/build rediseatch1 bash)
  4. docker exec -it $search bash

Installing prerequisites

To build and test RediSearch one needs to install serveral packages, depending on the underlying OS. Currently, we support the Ubuntu/Debian, CentOS, Fedora, and macOS.

If you have gnu make installed, you can execute

  1. cd RediSearch
  2. make setup

Alternatively, just invoke the following:

  1. cd RediSearch
  2. ./deps/readies/bin/getpy2
  3. ./system-setup.py

Note that system-setup.py will install various packages on your system using the native package manager and pip. This requires root permissions (i.e. sudo) on Linux.

If you prefer to avoid that, you can:

  • Review system-setup.py and install packages manually,
  • Use an isolated environment like explained above,
  • Utilize a Python virtual environment, as Python installations known to be sensitive when not used in isolation.

Next, execute the following, to complete dependency acquisition:

  1. make fetch

Installing Redis

As a rule of thumb, you’re better off running the latest Redis version.

If your OS has a Redis 5.x package, you can install it using the OS package manager.

Otherwise, you can invoke ./deps/readies/getredis5 .

Getting help

make help provides a quick summary of the development features.

Building from source

make build will build RediSearch. To enable unit tests, add TEST=1 . Note that RediSearch uses CMake as its build system. make build will invoke both CMake and the subsequent make command that’s required to complete the build. Use make clean to remove built artifacts. make clean ALL=1 will remove the entire RediSearch/build directory.

Diagnosing CMake

To get a glimpse into CMake decesion process, add WHY=1 to the build command. CMake stores its intermediate files in RediSearch/build . Afterwards, one can use:

  1. cd build
  2. make -n

or:

  1. cd build
  2. make V=1

to further diagnose the build process.

Running Redis with RediSearch

The following will run redis and load RediSearch module.

  1. make run

You can open redis-cli in another terminal to interact with it.

Running tests

There are several sets of unit tests: * C tests, located in src/tests , run by make c_tests . * C++ tests (enabled by GTest), located in src/cpptests , run by make cpp_tests . * Python tests (enabled by RLTest), located in src/pytests , run by make pytest .

One can run all tests by invoking make test . A single test can be run using the TEST parameter, e.g. make test TEST=regex .

Debugging

To build for debugging (enabling symbolic information and disabling optimization), run make DEBUG=1 . One can the use make run DEBUG=1 to invoke gdb . In addition to the usual way to set breakpoints in gdb , it is possible to use the BB macro to set a breakpoint inside RediSearch code. It will only have an effect when running under gdb .

Similarly, Python tests in a single-test mode, one can set a breakpoint by using the BB() function inside a test.