Mini Redis

Minimal Redis-like server and CLI in Go. It supports a subset of Redis command (keys with optional expiry, lists including blocking pops, sorted sets, reading from a RDB file) and speaks about the Redis Serialization Protocol -RESP and Redis Persistence. It ships with a tiny mini-redis-server and a companion mini-redis-cli for interactive use.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Features
• Installation
  • macOS (Homebrew)
  • Windows
• Usage
  • Starting the server
  • Starting the CLI
  • Commands
• Resources
• Contributing

Overview

This repository contains a implementation of a small, in-memory data store with a Redis-like protocol and command set. The server handles concurrent clients over TCP, parses RESP requests, and executes a core subset of Redis commands for strings, lists, and sorted sets. It can also best-effort load an existing RDB file at startup for simple persistence scenarios (read-only load).

The project is written in Go to demonstrate concurrency, networking, and protocol parsing with a familiar Redis-like interface.

Features

• RESP protocol: Parses and returns replies using Redis Serialization Protocol (RESP).

• Keys with optional Expiry:

  • SET key value [PX <milliseconds>]
  • GET key
  • Passive expiration on read when PX is set.

• Lists:

  • LPUSH, RPUSH, LLEN, LRANGE, LPOP [count], BLPOP key timeout
  • Basic blocking pop support with timeout or indefinite block.

• Sorted Sets (ZSET):

  • ZADD, ZRANK, ZRANGE, ZCARD, ZSCORE, ZREM
  • Kept ordered by score (and member name as tiebreaker).

• Introspection and config:

  • PING, ECHO <message>
  • KEYS * (only the * pattern is supported)
  • CONFIG GET dir|dbfilename

• RDB loading (read-only):

  • If -dir and -dbfilename are given, the server attempts to load an RDB file on startup.

• Simple, portable CLI:

  • mini-redis-cli provides an interactive prompt similar to redis-cli.

Installation

macOS (Homebrew)

brew tap kpraveenkumar19/mini-redis
brew install mini-redis

This installs both mini-redis-server and mini-redis-cli on your PATH.

Windows

git clone https://github.com/kpraveenkumar19/mini-redis.git
cd mini-redis

# Build the server and cli
go build -o bin/mini-redis-server ./cmd/mini-redis-server
go build -o bin/mini-redis-cli ./cmd/mini-redis-cli

# Starting the server and cli
./bin/mini-redis-server
./bin/mini-redis-cli

Usage

Starting the server

mini-redis-server

Starting the CLI

mini-redis-cli 

You will see an interactive prompt like:

mini-redis-cli> SET key boo
OK
mini-redis-cli> GET key
boo

Type exit or quit to leave the CLI.

Commands

Below are all commands implemented by this project with example interactions :

Connection and introspection

mini-redis-cli> PING
PONG

mini-redis-cli> ECHO hello
hello

mini-redis-cli> KEYS *
1) <returns keys read from an RDB file>

mini-redis-cli> CONFIG GET dir
1) dir
2) <directory containing the rdb file>
mini-redis-cli> CONFIG GET dbfilename
1) dbfilename
2) <rdb file name>

Strings

# Basic set/get
mini-redis-cli> SET greeting "hello"
OK
mini-redis-cli> GET greeting
hello

# Set with millisecond (PX)
mini-redis-cli> SET temp "42" PX 2000
OK
mini-redis-cli> GET temp
42
# After ~2 seconds, the key will expire lazily on read

Lists

# Push items
mini-redis-cli> LPUSH mylist a b c    # list is now [c b a]
(integer) 3
mini-redis-cli> RPUSH mylist d e      # list is now [c b a d e]
(integer) 5

# Length
mini-redis-cli> LLEN mylist
(integer) 5

# Range (supports negative indexes)
mini-redis-cli> LRANGE mylist 1 3
1) b
2) a
3) d

# Pop single or multiple from head
mini-redis-cli> LPOP mylist
c
mini-redis-cli> LPOP mylist 2
1) b
2) a

# Blocking pop with timeout (seconds; 0 = block indefinitely)
mini-redis-cli> BLPOP emptylist 2
(nil)
mini-redis-cli> BLPOP mylist 0
1) mylist
2) d

Sorted Sets (ZSET)

mini-redis-cli> ZADD z 10 alice
(integer) 1
mini-redis-cli> ZADD z 20 bob
(integer) 1
mini-redis-cli> ZADD z 15 carol
(integer) 1

# Rank is zero-based; returns (nil) if not present
mini-redis-cli> ZRANK z carol
(integer) 1

# Range by index (supports negative indexes)
mini-redis-cli> ZRANGE z 0 -1
1) alice
2) carol
3) bob

# Cardinality
mini-redis-cli> ZCARD z
(integer) 3

# Score or (nil) if member missing
mini-redis-cli> ZSCORE z bob
20

# Remove member
mini-redis-cli> ZREM z bob
(integer) 

Resources

• Redis Commands
• Redis DataTypes
• Go Concurrency
• Redis serialization protocol
• Redis Persistence

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! To propose changes:

1. Fork the repo and create a feature branch.
2. Make your changes with clear commit messages.
3. Open a Pull Request describing the change and rationale. Include examples when applicable.