Options creation

Options object

class rocksdb.Options

Important

The default values mentioned here, describe the values of the C++ library only. This wrapper does not set any default value itself. So as soon as the rocksdb developers change a default value this document could be outdated. So if you really depend on a default value, double check it with the according version of the C++ library.

__init__(**kwargs)

All options mentioned below can also be passed as keyword-arguments in the constructor. For example:

import rocksdb

opts = rocksdb.Options(create_if_missing=True)
# is the same as
opts = rocksdb.Options()
opts.create_if_missing = True
create_if_missing

If True, the database will be created if it is missing.

Type: bool
Default: False
error_if_exists

If True, an error is raised if the database already exists.

Type: bool
Default: False
paranoid_checks

If True, the implementation will do aggressive checking of the data it is processing and will stop early if it detects any errors. This may have unforeseen ramifications: for example, a corruption of one DB entry may cause a large number of entries to become unreadable or for the entire DB to become unopenable. If any of the writes to the database fails (Put, Delete, Merge, Write), the database will switch to read-only mode and fail all other Write operations.

Type: bool
Default: True
write_buffer_size

Amount of data to build up in memory (backed by an unsorted log on disk) before converting to a sorted on-disk file.

Larger values increase performance, especially during bulk loads. Up to max_write_buffer_number write buffers may be held in memory at the same time, so you may wish to adjust this parameter to control memory usage. Also, a larger write buffer will result in a longer recovery time the next time the database is opened.

Type: int
Default: 4194304
max_write_buffer_number

The maximum number of write buffers that are built up in memory. The default is 2, so that when 1 write buffer is being flushed to storage, new writes can continue to the other write buffer.

Type: int
Default: 2
min_write_buffer_number_to_merge

The minimum number of write buffers that will be merged together before writing to storage. If set to 1, then all write buffers are fushed to L0 as individual files and this increases read amplification because a get request has to check in all of these files. Also, an in-memory merge may result in writing lesser data to storage if there are duplicate records in each of these individual write buffers.

Type: int
Default: 1
max_open_files

Number of open files that can be used by the DB. You may need to increase this if your database has a large working set. Value -1 means files opened are always kept open. You can estimate number of files based on target_file_size_base and target_file_size_multiplier for level-based compaction. For universal-style compaction, you can usually set it to -1.

Type: int
Default: 5000
compression

Compress blocks using the specified compression algorithm. This parameter can be changed dynamically.

num_levels

Number of levels for this database

Type: int
Default: 7
level0_file_num_compaction_trigger

Number of files to trigger level-0 compaction. A value <0 means that level-0 compaction will not be triggered by number of files at all.

Type: int
Default: 4
level0_slowdown_writes_trigger

Soft limit on number of level-0 files. We start slowing down writes at this point. A value <0 means that no writing slow down will be triggered by number of files in level-0.

Type: int
Default: 20
level0_stop_writes_trigger

Maximum number of level-0 files. We stop writes at this point.

Type: int
Default: 24
max_mem_compaction_level

Maximum level to which a new compacted memtable is pushed if it does not create overlap. We try to push to level 2 to avoid the relatively expensive level 0=>1 compactions and to avoid some expensive manifest file operations. We do not push all the way to the largest level since that can generate a lot of wasted disk space if the same key space is being repeatedly overwritten.

Type: int
Default: 2
target_file_size_base
Target file size for compaction.
target_file_size_base is per-file size for level-1.
Target file size for level L can be calculated by
target_file_size_base * (target_file_size_multiplier ^ (L-1)).

For example, if target_file_size_base is 2MB and target_file_size_multiplier is 10, then each file on level-1 will be 2MB, and each file on level 2 will be 20MB, and each file on level-3 will be 200MB.

Type: int
Default: 2097152
target_file_size_multiplier
by default target_file_size_multiplier is 1, which means
by default files in different levels will have similar size.
Type: int
Default: 1
max_bytes_for_level_base

Control maximum total data size for a level. max_bytes_for_level_base is the max total for level-1. Maximum number of bytes for level L can be calculated as (max_bytes_for_level_base) * (max_bytes_for_level_multiplier ^ (L-1)) For example, if max_bytes_for_level_base is 20MB, and if max_bytes_for_level_multiplier is 10, total data size for level-1 will be 20MB, total file size for level-2 will be 200MB, and total file size for level-3 will be 2GB.

Type: int
Default: 10485760
max_bytes_for_level_multiplier

See max_bytes_for_level_base

Type: int
Default: 10
max_bytes_for_level_multiplier_additional

Different max-size multipliers for different levels. These are multiplied by max_bytes_for_level_multiplier to arrive at the max-size of each level.

Type: [int]
Default: [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]
max_compaction_bytes

We try to limit number of bytes in one compaction to be lower than this threshold. But it’s not guaranteed. Value 0 will be sanitized.

Type: int
Default: target_file_size_base * 25
use_fsync

If true, then every store to stable storage will issue a fsync. If false, then every store to stable storage will issue a fdatasync. This parameter should be set to true while storing data to filesystem like ext3 that can lose files after a reboot.

Type: bool
Default: False
db_log_dir

This specifies the info LOG dir. If it is empty, the log files will be in the same dir as data. If it is non empty, the log files will be in the specified dir, and the db data dir’s absolute path will be used as the log file name’s prefix.

Type: unicode
Default: ""
wal_dir

This specifies the absolute dir path for write-ahead logs (WAL). If it is empty, the log files will be in the same dir as data, dbname is used as the data dir by default. If it is non empty, the log files will be in kept the specified dir. When destroying the db, all log files in wal_dir and the dir itself is deleted

Type: unicode
Default: ""
delete_obsolete_files_period_micros

The periodicity when obsolete files get deleted. The default value is 6 hours. The files that get out of scope by compaction process will still get automatically delete on every compaction, regardless of this setting

Type: int
Default: 21600000000
max_background_compactions

Maximum number of concurrent background jobs, submitted to the default LOW priority thread pool

Type: int
Default: 1
max_background_flushes

Maximum number of concurrent background memtable flush jobs, submitted to the HIGH priority thread pool. By default, all background jobs (major compaction and memtable flush) go to the LOW priority pool. If this option is set to a positive number, memtable flush jobs will be submitted to the HIGH priority pool. It is important when the same Env is shared by multiple db instances. Without a separate pool, long running major compaction jobs could potentially block memtable flush jobs of other db instances, leading to unnecessary Put stalls.

Type: int
Default: 1
max_log_file_size

Specify the maximal size of the info log file. If the log file is larger than max_log_file_size, a new info log file will be created. If max_log_file_size == 0, all logs will be written to one log file.

Type: int
Default: 0
log_file_time_to_roll

Time for the info log file to roll (in seconds). If specified with non-zero value, log file will be rolled if it has been active longer than log_file_time_to_roll. A value of 0 means disabled.

Type: int
Default: 0
keep_log_file_num

Maximal info log files to be kept.

Type: int
Default: 1000
soft_rate_limit

Puts are delayed 0-1 ms when any level has a compaction score that exceeds soft_rate_limit. This is ignored when == 0.0. CONSTRAINT: soft_rate_limit <= hard_rate_limit. If this constraint does not hold, RocksDB will set soft_rate_limit = hard_rate_limit. A value of 0 means disabled.

Type: float
Default: 0
hard_rate_limit

Puts are delayed 1ms at a time when any level has a compaction score that exceeds hard_rate_limit. This is ignored when <= 1.0. A value fo 0 means disabled.

Type: float
Default: 0
rate_limit_delay_max_milliseconds

Max time a put will be stalled when hard_rate_limit is enforced. If 0, then there is no limit.

Type: int
Default: 1000
max_manifest_file_size

manifest file is rolled over on reaching this limit. The older manifest file be deleted. The default value is MAX_INT so that roll-over does not take place.

Type: int
Default: (2**64) - 1
table_cache_numshardbits

Number of shards used for table cache.

Type: int
Default: 4
arena_block_size

size of one block in arena memory allocation. If <= 0, a proper value is automatically calculated (usually 1/10 of writer_buffer_size).

Type: int
Default: 0
disable_auto_compactions

Disable automatic compactions. Manual compactions can still be issued on this database.

Type: bool
Default: False
wal_ttl_seconds, wal_size_limit_mb

The following two fields affect how archived logs will be deleted.

  1. If both set to 0, logs will be deleted asap and will not get into the archive.
  2. If wal_ttl_seconds is 0 and wal_size_limit_mb is not 0, WAL files will be checked every 10 min and if total size is greater then wal_size_limit_mb, they will be deleted starting with the earliest until size_limit is met. All empty files will be deleted.
  3. If wal_ttl_seconds is not 0 and wal_size_limit_mb is 0, then WAL files will be checked every wal_ttl_secondsi / 2 and those that are older than wal_ttl_seconds will be deleted.
  4. If both are not 0, WAL files will be checked every 10 min and both checks will be performed with ttl being first.
Type: int
Default: 0
manifest_preallocation_size

Number of bytes to preallocate (via fallocate) the manifest files. Default is 4mb, which is reasonable to reduce random IO as well as prevent overallocation for mounts that preallocate large amounts of data (such as xfs’s allocsize option).

Type: int
Default: 4194304
purge_redundant_kvs_while_flush

Purge duplicate/deleted keys when a memtable is flushed to storage.

Type: bool
Default: True
allow_mmap_reads

Allow the OS to mmap file for reading sst tables

Type: bool
Default: True
allow_mmap_writes

Allow the OS to mmap file for writing

Type: bool
Default: False
is_fd_close_on_exec

Disable child process inherit open files

Type: bool
Default: True
skip_log_error_on_recovery

Skip log corruption error on recovery (If client is ok with losing most recent changes)

Type: bool
Default: False
stats_dump_period_sec

If not zero, dump rocksdb.stats to LOG every stats_dump_period_sec

Type: int
Default: 3600
advise_random_on_open

If set true, will hint the underlying file system that the file access pattern is random, when a sst file is opened.

Type: bool
Default: True
use_adaptive_mutex

Use adaptive mutex, which spins in the user space before resorting to kernel. This could reduce context switch when the mutex is not heavily contended. However, if the mutex is hot, we could end up wasting spin time.

Type: bool
Default: False
bytes_per_sync

Allows OS to incrementally sync files to disk while they are being written, asynchronously, in the background. Issue one request for every bytes_per_sync written. 0 turns it off.

Type: int
Default: 0
compaction_style

The compaction style. Could be set to "level" to use level-style compaction. For universal-style compaction use "universal". For FIFO compaction use "fifo". If no compaction style use "none".

Type: string
Default: level
compaction_pri

If level compaction_style = kCompactionStyleLevel, for each level, which files are prioritized to be picked to compact.

compaction_options_universal

Options to use for universal-style compaction. They make only sense if rocksdb.Options.compaction_style is set to "universal".

It is a dict with the following keys.

  • size_ratio:

    Percentage flexibilty while comparing file size. If the candidate file(s) size is 1% smaller than the next file’s size, then include next file into this candidate set. Default: 1

  • min_merge_width:

    The minimum number of files in a single compaction run. Default: 2

  • max_merge_width:

    The maximum number of files in a single compaction run. Default: UINT_MAX

  • max_size_amplification_percent:

    The size amplification is defined as the amount (in percentage) of additional storage needed to store a single byte of data in the database. For example, a size amplification of 2% means that a database that contains 100 bytes of user-data may occupy upto 102 bytes of physical storage. By this definition, a fully compacted database has a size amplification of 0%. Rocksdb uses the following heuristic to calculate size amplification: it assumes that all files excluding the earliest file contribute to the size amplification. Default: 200, which means that a 100 byte database could require upto 300 bytes of storage.

  • compression_size_percent:

    If this option is set to be -1 (the default value), all the output files will follow compression type specified.

    If this option is not negative, we will try to make sure compressed size is just above this value. In normal cases, at least this percentage of data will be compressed.

    When we are compacting to a new file, here is the criteria whether it needs to be compressed: assuming here are the list of files sorted by generation time: A1...An B1...Bm C1...Ct where A1 is the newest and Ct is the oldest, and we are going to compact B1...Bm, we calculate the total size of all the files as total_size, as well as the total size of C1...Ct as total_C, the compaction output file will be compressed if total_C / total_size < this percentage. Default: -1

  • stop_style:

    The algorithm used to stop picking files into a single compaction. Can be either "similar_size" or "total_size".

    • similar_size: Pick files of similar size.
    • total_size: Total size of picked files is greater than next file.

    Default: "total_size"

For setting options, just assign a dict with the fields to set. It is allowed to omit keys in this dict. Missing keys are just not set to the underlying options object.

This example just changes the stop_style and leaves the other options untouched.

opts = rocksdb.Options()
opts.compaction_options_universal = {'stop_style': 'similar_size'}
max_sequential_skip_in_iterations

An iteration->Next() sequentially skips over keys with the same user-key unless this option is set. This number specifies the number of keys (with the same userkey) that will be sequentially skipped before a reseek is issued.

Type: int
Default: 8
memtable_factory

This is a factory that provides MemTableRep objects. Right now you can assing instances of the following classes.

Default: rocksdb.SkipListMemtableFactory

table_factory

Factory for the files forming the persisten data storage. Sometimes they are also named SST-Files. Right now you can assign instances of the following classes.

Default: rocksdb.BlockBasedTableFactory

inplace_update_support

Allows thread-safe inplace updates. Requires Updates if

  • key exists in current memtable
  • new sizeof(new_value) <= sizeof(old_value)
  • old_value for that key is a put i.e. kTypeValue
Type: bool
Default: False
inplace_update_num_locks
Number of locks used for inplace update.
Default: 10000, if inplace_update_support = true, else 0.
Type: int
Default: 10000
comparator

Comparator used to define the order of keys in the table. A python comparator must implement the rocksdb.interfaces.Comparator interface.

Requires: The client must ensure that the comparator supplied here has the same name and orders keys exactly the same as the comparator provided to previous open calls on the same DB.

Default: rocksdb.BytewiseComparator

merge_operator

The client must provide a merge operator if Merge operation needs to be accessed. Calling Merge on a DB without a merge operator would result in rocksdb.errors.NotSupported. The client must ensure that the merge operator supplied here has the same name and exactly the same semantics as the merge operator provided to previous open calls on the same DB. The only exception is reserved for upgrade, where a DB previously without a merge operator is introduced to Merge operation for the first time. It’s necessary to specify a merge operator when openning the DB in this case.

A python merge operator must implement the rocksdb.interfaces.MergeOperator or rocksdb.interfaces.AssociativeMergeOperator interface.

Default: None

prefix_extractor

If not None, use the specified function to determine the prefixes for keys. These prefixes will be placed in the filter. Depending on the workload, this can reduce the number of read-IOP cost for scans when a prefix is passed to the calls generating an iterator (rocksdb.DB.iterkeys() …).

A python prefix_extractor must implement the rocksdb.interfaces.SliceTransform interface

For prefix filtering to work properly, “prefix_extractor” and “comparator” must be such that the following properties hold:

  1. key.starts_with(prefix(key))
  2. compare(prefix(key), key) <= 0
  3. If compare(k1, k2) <= 0, then compare(prefix(k1), prefix(k2)) <= 0
  4. prefix(prefix(key)) == prefix(key)

Default: None

row_cache

A global cache for table-level rows. If None this cache is not used. Otherwise it must be an instance of rocksdb.LRUCache

Default: None

CompactionPri

class rocksdb.CompactionPri

Defines the support compression types

kByCompensatedSize
kOldestLargestSeqFirst
kOldestSmallestSeqFirst
kMinOverlappingRatio

CompressionTypes

class rocksdb.CompressionType

Defines the support compression types

no_compression
snappy_compression
zlib_compression
bzip2_compression
lz4_compression
lz4hc_compression
xpress_compression
zstd_compression
zstdnotfinal_compression
disable_compression

BytewiseComparator

class rocksdb.BytewiseComparator

Wraps the rocksdb Bytewise Comparator, it uses lexicographic byte-wise ordering

BloomFilterPolicy

class rocksdb.BloomFilterPolicy

Wraps the rocksdb BloomFilter Policy

__init__(bits_per_key)
Parameters:bits_per_key (int) – Specifies the approximately number of bits per key. A good value for bits_per_key is 10, which yields a filter with ~ 1% false positive rate.

LRUCache

class rocksdb.LRUCache

Wraps the rocksdb LRUCache

__init__(capacity, shard_bits=None)

Create a new cache with a fixed size capacity (in bytes). The cache is sharded to 2^numShardBits shards, by hash of the key. The total capacity is divided and evenly assigned to each shard.

TableFactories

Currently RocksDB supports two types of tables: plain table and block-based table. Instances of this classes can assigned to rocksdb.Options.table_factory

  • Block-based table: This is the default table type that RocksDB inherited from LevelDB. It was designed for storing data in hard disk or flash device.
  • Plain table: It is one of RocksDB’s SST file format optimized for low query latency on pure-memory or really low-latency media.

Tutorial of rocksdb table formats is available here: https://github.com/facebook/rocksdb/wiki/A-Tutorial-of-RocksDB-SST-formats

class rocksdb.BlockBasedTableFactory

Wraps BlockBasedTableFactory of RocksDB.

__init__(index_type='binary_search', hash_index_allow_collision=True, checksum='crc32', block_cache, block_cache_compressed, filter_policy=None, no_block_cache=False, block_size=None, block_size_deviation=None, block_restart_interval=None, whole_key_filtering=None):
Parameters:
  • index_type (string) –
    • binary_search a space efficient index block that is optimized for binary-search-based index.
    • hash_search the hash index. If enabled, will do hash lookup when Options.prefix_extractor is provided.
  • hash_index_allow_collision (bool) – Influence the behavior when hash_search is used. If False, stores a precise prefix to block range mapping. If True, does not store prefix and allows prefix hash collision (less memory consumption)
  • checksum (string) – Use the specified checksum type. Newly created table files will be protected with this checksum type. Old table files will still be readable, even though they have different checksum type. Can be either crc32 or xxhash.
  • block_cache

    Control over blocks (user data is stored in a set of blocks, and a block is the unit of reading from disk).

    If None, rocksdb will automatically create and use an 8MB internal cache. If not None use the specified cache for blocks. In that case it must be an instance of rocksdb.LRUCache

  • block_cache_compressed – If None, rocksdb will not use a compressed block cache. If not None use the specified cache for compressed blocks. In that case it must be an instance of rocksdb.LRUCache
  • filter_policy – If not None use the specified filter policy to reduce disk reads. A python filter policy must implement the rocksdb.interfaces.FilterPolicy interface. Recommended is a instance of rocksdb.BloomFilterPolicy
  • no_block_cache (bool) – Disable block cache. If this is set to true, then no block cache should be used, and the block_cache should point to None
  • block_size (int) – If set to None the rocksdb default of 4096 is used. Approximate size of user data packed per block. Note that the block size specified here corresponds to uncompressed data. The actual size of the unit read from disk may be smaller if compression is enabled. This parameter can be changed dynamically.
  • block_size_deviation (int) – If set to None the rocksdb default of 10 is used. This is used to close a block before it reaches the configured ‘block_size’. If the percentage of free space in the current block is less than this specified number and adding a new record to the block will exceed the configured block size, then this block will be closed and the new record will be written to the next block.
  • block_restart_interval (int) – If set to None the rocksdb default of 16 is used. Number of keys between restart points for delta encoding of keys. This parameter can be changed dynamically. Most clients should leave this parameter alone.
  • whole_key_filtering (bool) – If set to None the rocksdb default of True is used. If True, place whole keys in the filter (not just prefixes). This must generally be true for gets to be efficient.
class rocksdb.PlainTableFactory

Plain Table with prefix-only seek. It wraps rocksdb PlainTableFactory.

For this factory, you need to set rocksdb.Options.prefix_extractor properly to make it work. Look-up will start with prefix hash lookup for key prefix. Inside the hash bucket found, a binary search is executed for hash conflicts. Finally, a linear search is used.

__init__(user_key_len=0, bloom_bits_per_key=10, hash_table_ratio=0.75, index_sparseness=10, huge_page_tlb_size=0, encoding_type='plain', full_scan_mode=False, store_index_in_file=False)
Parameters:
  • user_key_len (int) – Plain table has optimization for fix-sized keys, which can be specified via user_key_len. Alternatively, you can pass 0 if your keys have variable lengths.
  • bloom_bits_per_key (int) – The number of bits used for bloom filer per prefix. You may disable it by passing 0.
  • hash_table_ratio (float) – The desired utilization of the hash table used for prefix hashing. hash_table_ratio = number of prefixes / #buckets in the hash table.
  • index_sparseness (int) – Inside each prefix, need to build one index record for how many keys for binary search inside each hash bucket. For encoding type prefix, the value will be used when writing to determine an interval to rewrite the full key. It will also be used as a suggestion and satisfied when possible.
  • huge_page_tlb_size (int) – If <=0, allocate hash indexes and blooms from malloc. Otherwise from huge page TLB. The user needs to reserve huge pages for it to be allocated, like: sysctl -w vm.nr_hugepages=20 See linux doc Documentation/vm/hugetlbpage.txt
  • encoding_type (string) –

    How to encode the keys. The value will determine how to encode keys when writing to a new SST file. This value will be stored inside the SST file which will be used when reading from the file, which makes it possible for users to choose different encoding type when reopening a DB. Files with different encoding types can co-exist in the same DB and can be read.

    • plain: Always write full keys without any special encoding.
    • prefix: Find opportunity to write the same prefix once for multiple rows.
      In some cases, when a key follows a previous key with the same prefix, instead of writing out the full key, it just writes out the size of the shared prefix, as well as other bytes, to save some bytes.

      When using this option, the user is required to use the same prefix extractor to make sure the same prefix will be extracted from the same key. The Name() value of the prefix extractor will be stored in the file. When reopening the file, the name of the options.prefix_extractor given will be bitwise compared to the prefix extractors stored in the file. An error will be returned if the two don’t match.

  • full_scan_mode (bool) – Mode for reading the whole file one record by one without using the index.
  • store_index_in_file (bool) – Compute plain table index and bloom filter during file building and store it in file. When reading file, index will be mmaped instead of recomputation.

MemtableFactories

RocksDB has different classes to represent the in-memory buffer for the current operations. You have to assing instances of the following classes to rocksdb.Options.memtable_factory. This page has a comparison the most popular ones. https://github.com/facebook/rocksdb/wiki/Hash-based-memtable-implementations

class rocksdb.VectorMemtableFactory

This creates MemTableReps that are backed by an std::vector. On iteration, the vector is sorted. This is useful for workloads where iteration is very rare and writes are generally not issued after reads begin.

__init__(count=0)
Parameters:count (int) – Passed to the constructor of the underlying std::vector of each VectorRep. On initialization, the underlying array will be at least count bytes reserved for usage.
class rocksdb.SkipListMemtableFactory

This uses a skip list to store keys.

__init__()
class rocksdb.HashSkipListMemtableFactory

This class contains a fixed array of buckets, each pointing to a skiplist (null if the bucket is empty).

Note

rocksdb.Options.prefix_extractor must be set, otherwise rocksdb fails back to skip-list.

__init__(bucket_count = 1000000, skiplist_height = 4, skiplist_branching_factor = 4)
Parameters:
  • bucket_count (int) – number of fixed array buckets
  • skiplist_height (int) – the max height of the skiplist
  • skiplist_branching_factor (int) – probabilistic size ratio between adjacent link lists in the skiplist
class rocksdb.HashLinkListMemtableFactory

The factory is to create memtables with a hashed linked list. It contains a fixed array of buckets, each pointing to a sorted single linked list (null if the bucket is empty).

Note

rocksdb.Options.prefix_extractor must be set, otherwise rocksdb fails back to skip-list.

__init__(bucket_count=50000)
Parameters:bucket (int) – number of fixed array buckets