Redis: Your Guide to In-Memory Data Storage, Setup, and Usage

Redis is an open-source, in-memory data structure store that's lightning-fast and versatile. Learn the essentials: what it is, how to install and use it, and why it's a favorite among developers.

What Makes Redis Special? In-Memory Speed & More

Redis stands out because it keeps data in memory for blazing-fast read and write operations. But it’s more than just speed:

• Data Persistence: Redis persists data to disk, providing durability and preventing data loss.
• Versatile Data Structures: Strings, lists, sets, sorted sets, and hashes—Redis supports them all.
• Database Features: Replication, clustering, and tunable durability? Redis has those covered too.

Think of Redis as memcached's more powerful sibling, offering advanced data types and database-like features.

Quick Links to Level Up Your Redis Knowledge

Dive deeper with these resources:

• Data Types Intro: Explore Redis data types. https://redis.io/topics/data-types-intro
• Try Redis in Your Browser: Experiment live! https://try.redis.io
• Command Reference: See the full list of commands. https://redis.io/commands
• Official Documentation: The definitive resource. https://redis.io/documentation

Easy Build Guide: Compiling Redis on Linux, macOS, and BSD

Redis is designed to be compiled on a variety of systems: Linux, macOS, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and FreeBSD. Here's how to get started:

1. Open your terminal.
2. Navigate to the extracted Redis directory.
3. Simply enter make.

% make

Redis also offers options for building with TLS and systemd support

• TLS Support: For secure connections, use:

% make BUILD_TLS=yes

• Systemd Support: To manage Redis as a service:

% make USE_SYSTEMD=yes

Solve Build Problems and Dependency Issues

If you run into dependency issues or cached build options, use make distclean to clean everything and rebuild from scratch.

% make distclean

This is useful after updating the source code with git pull or modifying code within the dependencies tree.

How to Run Redis: Start Your Server

Start Redis with ease using the following commands:

1. Navigate to the src directory: cd src
2. Start the Redis server with the default configuration: ./redis-server

To specify a configuration file, use: ./redis-server /path/to/redis.conf

Playing with Redis: Your First Commands

Connect to your Redis server using redis-cli and start experimenting:

% cd src
% ./redis-cli
redis> ping
PONG
redis> set foo bar
OK
redis> get foo
"bar"

Installing Redis: Make it Official

To install Redis binaries to /usr/local/bin, use:

% make install

For a different destination, use make PREFIX=/some/other/directory install.

Contributing Code

All code contributions to the Redis project are subject to the Redis Software Grant and Contributor License Agreement.

Source Code Layout: A Peek Inside Redis Internals

The src directory contains the core Redis implementation in C. The root directory includes the Makefile, example configurations, and test scripts in the 'tests' directory.