Memento Redis

Memento cache backed by Redis. The underlying library is Carmine (refer to their documentation if you're interested in implementation details).

Offers guarantees that a cache entry is calculated only once even if using multiple JVMs.

Version 0.2.x works with Memento 1.1.x, version 0.1.x works with Memento 1.0.x.

Dependency

Usage

Use this library by invoking Memento functions with a new cache type and properties.

All the relevant code is in memento.redis namespace. See docstrings.

(ns example
  (:require [memento.core :as m]
            [memento.config :as mc]
            [memento.redis :as mr]))

(defn my-function [x]
  (* 2 x))

(m/memo #'my-function {mc/type mr/cache mr/conn {}})

Creates an infinite cache for function my-function in Redis with Carmine connection {} (localhost).

Connection configuration

You must provide a Carmine connection in your cache configuration via key memento.redis/cache.

There are multiple forms that this cache parameter can take:

• a map
• an IDeref (atom, var, delay, volatile, ) that will return Carmine connection map
• a fn of 0 args that will return a Carmine connection map

The latter two will be queried for connection map each time connection is used.

Time based eviction

Use normal Memento TTL and Fade settings. Do not define both settings on same cache, because Redis EXPIRE mechanism cannot support both modes at once.

Size based eviction

Redis itself does not support size based eviction except when defined over whole databases. They suggest that you create a redis instance for each such scenario.

Using Redis as an LRU cache

Cache name

Cache can have a name, specified by :memento.redis/name cache conf property. It defaults to "", which might can be ok for most caches.

If use multiple Caches to cache the same function (e.g. by swapping cache using memento.core/with-caches or similar mechanism), you need to give a different name to at least one of them, otherwise they will both see same entries. So any sort of scoped cache should provide a name.

All caches having same name ("") also affects Memento core function m/memo-clear-cache!, it will clear entries for all caches with same name.

Redis key strategy

The most important setting when using this cache. A single Memento Redis cache can contain entries for multiple functions, but when stored in Redis, this structure is represented by flat string keys. It is important how these keys are kept from colliding.

Keys are derived from triplets:

• Memento Redis cache name (set by :memento.redis/name cache configuration property)
• Memento Segment (the cached function MountPoint)
• argument list of the function call

You can configure how Memento segment part of this triplet is handled.

By default, the segment ID is used as part of the Redis key to disambiguate entries from different MountPoints (cached functions).

You can provide ID for the function's Cache Segment when you bind a function cache using :memento.core/id setting:

(m/memo #'my-function {mc/type mr/cache mr/conn {} mc/id `my-function})

It is incredibly important if you're memoizing anonymous functions that close over values in scope, to make those values part of the ID.

(defn adder [x]
  (m/memo (fn [y] (+ x y)) {mc/type mr/cache mr/conn {} mc/id [`adder x]}))

Now the memoized function will correctly separate the entries generated by ((adder 3) 4) and ((adder 4) 4), because [my-namespace/adder 3] is now part of the cache key.

The ID can be of any type. If the ID is not specified, then it defaults:

• String qualified name of Var if memo is called on a Var
• Java function object if you call memo directly on a function

It is this second scenario that is problematic, and Memento Redis has a couple of options for dealing with anonymous functions' Segments.

1. Provide ID when memoizing non-vars

Avoid the problem by always providing the ID via :memento.core/id option when memoizing functions.

2. The :stringify option

If you don't configure anything, Memento Redis will make parts of Redis keys that derive from Segment ID be stred when it is a function object (as if you specified :memento.redis/anon-key :stringify in your cache config).

This will solve any sort of problems with entries from different anonymous functions colliding with each other, but there is a huge downside: when you restart the JVM (or even reload the function's namespace in REPL), you will get a new Function object from same code with a different str representation. This will effectively cause the cache to start over as empty for this function, and any entries from previous session will stay in Redis until their expiry (or you can invalidate them manually).

You can try manually invalidating the cache to prevent accumulation of dead entries:

(m/memo-clear-cache! (m/active-cache my-function))

Or use the nuke option at the bottom of README.

3. The :empty option

Alternatively you can specify :memento.redis/anon-key cache setting as :empty and Memento Redis will make parts of Redis keys that derive from Segment ID be always nil when it is a function object.

This will prevent problems described above where anonymous functions lose their cache on JVM restarts and namespace reloads, but there's a downside: multiple anonymous functions can now collide keys in Redis.

This is fine if:

• you're caching one function per Cache, and you are specifying Cache name on each of them

or

• you're memoizing Vars and/or providing :memento.core/id setting

or

• you are caching just a few functions, and their argument lists are different enough to not collide Redis keys (different count or types of arguments)

or some combination of the above.

4. Write your own KeysGenerator

You can write an entirely custom strategy for naming Redis keys for your cache entries. You need to implement memento.redis.keys/KeysGenerator protocol and provide such object to your cache via setting :memento.redis/keygen.

If you do so, everything described above doesn't apply, but I still suggest you take a look at the existing implementation of the default KeysGenerator.

Compression

Carmine already does LZ4 compression automatically for keys and values over 8KB.

Compressing your keys further with hashing

If your functions' arguments are really large, you might want to use hashed keys. For example, you might have a function where the parameter is a big JSON, and the output is an HTML render.

You can achieve that by using the normal Memento key-fn cache option (or comp on existing one) with one of the convenience functions:

• memento.redis/sha1
• memento.redis/sha256

(def inf-cache {mc/type mr/cache mr/conn {} mc/key-fn mr/sha1})

(m/memo #'my-function inf-cache)

Removing all Memento Redis related keys from Redis

When, for one reason or another, you've got cache related keys stuck in Redis, and you just want to purge everything.

(mr/nuke!! my-function)

Call it on a memoized function, and it will delete all Memento Redis keys on the connection that memoized function is using (and the key generator). If you are using multiple connections and/or key generators, you need multiple call with the correct functions.

Futures and thread-pools

This library uses future and you might need to call shutdown-agents to make JVM shutdown promptly.

Customizing Daemon thread intervals

Memento has a thread that maintains JVM local state by polling Redis. This is so the loads done by other instances can be finalized, locks maintained and secondary index maintained.

1. Every 40ms Redis is checked for any foreign loads that this instance is waiting on. This can be adjusted by system property memento.redis.daemon_interval.

2. Every 1000ms Memento refreshes load locks for loads ongoing, if the lock is not maintained for 5 seconds (or as specified by system property memento.redis.load_marker_fade in seconds), then lock is dropped

3. Every 4000ms Memento will perform cleanup of secondary indexes, removing entries from indexes that point to keys that no longer exist. This interval can be adjusted by system property memento.redis.sec_index_interval.

License

Copyright © 2021-2023 Rok Lenarčič

Licensed under the term of the MIT License, see LICENSE.