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https://github.com/antirez/rax

A radix tree implementation in ANSI C
https://github.com/antirez/rax

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A radix tree implementation in ANSI C

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# Rax, an ANSI C radix tree implementation



Rax is a radix tree implementation initially written to be used in a specific

place of Redis in order to solve a performance problem, but immediately

converted into a stand alone project to make it reusable for Redis itself, outside the initial intended application, and for other projects as well.



The primary goal was to find a suitable balance between performances

and memory usage, while providing a fully featured implementation of radix trees

that can cope with many different requirements.



During the development of this library, while getting more and more excited

about how practical and applicable radix trees are, I was very surprised to

see how hard it is to write a robust implementation, especially of a fully

featured radix tree with a flexible iterator. A lot of things can go wrong

in node splitting, merging, and various edge cases. For this reason a major

goal of the project is to provide a stable and battle tested implementation

for people to use and in order to share bug fixes. The project relies a lot

on fuzz testing techniques in order to explore not just all the lines of code

the project is composed of, but a large amount of possible states.



Rax is an open source project, released under the BSD two clause license.



Major features:



* Memory conscious:

    + Packed nodes representation.

    + Able to avoid storing a NULL pointer inside the node if the key is set to NULL (there is an `isnull` bit in the node header).

    + Lack of parent node reference. A stack is used instead when needed.

* Fast lookups:

    + Edges are stored as arrays of bytes directly in the parent node, no need to access non useful children while trying to find a match. This translates into less cache misses compared to other implementations.

    + Cache line friendly scanning of the correct child by storing edges as two separated arrays: an array of edge chars and one of edge pointers.

* Complete implementation:

    + Deletion with nodes re-compression as needed.

    + Iterators (including a way to use iterators while the tree is modified).

    + Random walk iteration.

    + Ability to report and resist out of memory: if malloc() returns NULL the API can report an out of memory error and always leave the tree in a consistent state.

* Readable and fixable implementation:

    + All complex parts are commented with algorithms details.

    + Debugging messages can be enabled to understand what the implementation is doing when calling a given function.

    + Ability to print the radix tree nodes representation as ASCII art.

* Portable implementation:

    + Never does unaligned accesses to memory.

    + Written in ANSI C99, no extensions used.

* Extensive code and possible states test coverage using fuzz testing.

    + Testing relies a lot on fuzzing in order to explore non trivial states.

    + Implementation of the dictionary and iterator compared with behavior-equivalent implementations of simple hash tables and sorted arrays, generating random data and checking if the two implementations results match.

    + Out of memory condition tests. The implementation is fuzzed with a special allocator returning `NULL` at random. The resulting radix tree is tested for consistency. Redis, the primary target of this implementation, does not use this feature, but the ability to handle OOM may make this implementation useful where the ability to survive OOMs is needed.

    + Part of Redis: the implementation is stressed significantly in the real world.



The layout of a node is as follows. In the example, a node which represents

a key (so has a data pointer associated), has three children `x`, `y`, `z`.

Every space represents a byte in the diagram.



    +----+---+--------+--------+--------+--------+

    |HDR |xyz| x-ptr  | y-ptr  | z-ptr  |dataptr |

    +----+---+--------+--------+--------+--------+



The header `HDR` is actually a bitfield with the following fields:



    uint32_t iskey:1;     /* Does this node contain a key? */

    uint32_t isnull:1;    /* Associated value is NULL (don't store it). */

    uint32_t iscompr:1;   /* Node is compressed. */

    uint32_t size:29;     /* Number of children, or compressed string len. */



Compressed nodes represent chains of nodes that are not keys and have

exactly a single child, so instead of storing:



    A -> B -> C -> [some other node]



We store a compressed node in the form:



    "ABC" -> [some other node]



The layout of a compressed node is:



    +----+---+--------+

    |HDR |ABC|chld-ptr|

    +----+---+--------+



# Basic API



The basic API is a trivial dictionary where you can add or remove elements.

The only notable difference is that the insert and remove APIs also accept

an optional argument in order to return, by reference, the old value stored

at a key when it is updated (on insert) or removed.



## Creating a radix tree and adding a key



A new radix tree is created with:



    rax *rt = raxNew();



In order to insert a new key, the following function is used:



    int raxInsert(rax *rax, unsigned char *s, size_t len, void *data,

                  void **old);



Example usage:



    raxInsert(rt,(unsigned char*)"mykey",5,some_void_value,NULL);



The function returns 1 if the key was inserted correctly, or 0 if the key

was already in the radix tree: in this case, the value is updated. The

value of 0 is also returned on out of memory, however in that case

`errno` is set to `ENOMEM`.



If the associated value `data` is NULL, the node where the key

is stored does not use additional memory to store the NULL value, so

dictionaries composed of just keys are memory efficient if you use

NULL as associated value.



Note that keys are unsigned arrays of chars and you need to specify the

length: Rax is binary safe, so the key can be anything.



The insertion function is also available in a variant that will not

overwrite the existing key value if any:



    int raxTryInsert(rax *rax, unsigned char *s, size_t len, void *data,

                     void **old);



The function is exactly the same as raxInsert(), however if the key

exists the function returns 0 (like raxInsert) without touching the

old value. The old value can be still returned via the 'old' pointer

by reference.



## Key lookup



The lookup function is the following:



    void *raxFind(rax *rax, unsigned char *s, size_t len);



This function returns the special value `raxNotFound` if the key you

are trying to access is not there, so an example usage is the following:



    void *data = raxFind(rax,mykey,mykey_len);

    if (data == raxNotFound) return;

    printf("Key value is %p\n", data);



raxFind() is a read only function so no out of memory conditions are

possible, the function never fails.



## Deleting keys



Deleting the key is as you could imagine it, but with the ability to

return by reference the value associated to the key we are about to

delete:



    int raxRemove(rax *rax, unsigned char *s, size_t len, void **old);



The function returns 1 if the key gets deleted, or 0 if the key was not

there. This function also does not fail for out of memory, however if

there is an out of memory condition while a key is being deleted, the

resulting tree nodes may not get re-compressed even if possible: the radix

tree may be less efficiently encoded in this case.



The `old` argument is optional, if passed will be set to the key associated

value if the function successfully finds and removes the key.



# Iterators



The Rax key space is ordered lexicographically, using the value of the

bytes the keys are composed of in order to decide which key is greater

between two keys. If the prefix is the same, the longer key is considered

to be greater.



Rax iterators allow to seek a given element based on different operators

and then to navigate the key space calling `raxNext()` and `raxPrev()`.



## Basic iterator usage



Iterators are normally declared as local variables allocated on the stack,

and then initialized with the `raxStart` function:



    raxIterator iter;

    raxStart(&iter, rt); // Note that 'rt' is the radix tree pointer.



The function `raxStart` never fails and returns no value.

Once an iterator is initialized, it can be sought (sought is the past tens

of 'seek', which is not 'seeked', in case you wonder) in order to start

the iteration from the specified position. For this goal, the function

`raxSeek` is used:



    int raxSeek(raxIterator *it, unsigned char *ele, size_t len, const char *op);



For instance one may want to seek the first element greater or equal to the

key `"foo"`:



    raxSeek(&iter,">=",(unsigned char*)"foo",3);



The function raxSeek() returns 1 on success, or 0 on failure. Possible failures are:



1. An invalid operator was passed as last argument.

2. An out of memory condition happened while seeking the iterator.



Once the iterator is sought, it is possible to iterate using the function

`raxNext` and `raxPrev` as in the following example:



    while(raxNext(&iter)) {

        printf("Key: %.*s\n", (int)iter.key_len, (char*)iter.key);

    }



The function `raxNext` returns elements starting from the element sought

with `raxSeek`, till the final element of the tree. When there are no more

elements, 0 is returned, otherwise the function returns 1. However the function

may return 0 when an out of memory condition happens as well: while it attempts

to always use the stack, if the tree depth is large or the keys are big the

iterator starts to use heap allocated memory.



The function `raxPrev` works exactly in the same way, but will move towards

the first element of the radix tree instead of moving towards the last

element.



# Releasing iterators



An iterator can be used multiple times, and can be sought again and again

using `raxSeek` without any need to call `raxStart` again. However, when the

iterator is not going to be used again, its memory must be reclaimed

with the following call:



    raxStop(&iter);



Note that even if you do not call `raxStop`, most of the times you'll not

detect any memory leak, but this is just a side effect of how the

Rax implementation works: most of the times it will try to use the stack

allocated data structures. However for deep trees or large keys, heap memory

will be allocated, and failing to call `raxStop` will result into a memory

leak.



## Seek operators



The function `raxSeek` can seek different elements based on the operator.

For instance in the example above we used the following call:



    raxSeek(&iter,">=",(unsigned char*)"foo",3);



In order to seek the first element `>=` to the string `"foo"`. However

other operators are available. The first set are pretty obvious:



* `==` seek the element exactly equal to the given one.

* `>` seek the element immediately greater than the given one.

* `>=` seek the element equal, or immediately greater than the given one.

* `<` seek the element immediately smaller than the given one.

* `<=` seek the element equal, or immediately smaller than the given one.

* `^` seek the smallest element of the radix tree.

* `$` seek the greatest element of the radix tree.



When the last two operators, `^` or `$` are used, the key and key length

argument passed are completely ignored since they are not relevant.



Note how certain times the seek will be impossible, for example when the

radix tree contains no elements or when we are asking for a seek that is

not possible, like in the following case:



    raxSeek(&iter,">",(unsigned char*)"zzzzz",5);



We may not have any element greater than `"zzzzz"`. In this case, what

happens is that the first call to `raxNext` or `raxPrev` will simply return

zero, so no elements are iterated.



## Iterator stop condition



Sometimes we want to iterate specific ranges, for example from AAA to BBB.

In order to do so, we could seek and get the next element. However we need

to stop once the returned key is greater than BBB. The Rax library offers

the `raxCompare` function in order to avoid you need to code the same string

comparison function again and again based on the exact iteration you are

doing:



    raxIterator iter;

    raxStart(&iter);

    raxSeek(&iter,">=",(unsigned char*)"AAA",3); // Seek the first element

    while(raxNext(&iter)) {

        if (raxCompare(&iter,">",(unsigned char*)"BBB",3)) break;

        printf("Current key: %.*s\n", (int)iter.key_len,(char*)iter.key);

    }

    raxStop(&iter);



The above code shows a complete range iterator just printing the keys

traversed by iterating.



The prototype of the `raxCompare` function is the following:



    int raxCompare(raxIterator *iter, const char *op, unsigned char *key, size_t key_len);



The operators supported are `>`, `>=`, `<`, `<=`, `==`.

The function returns 1 if the current iterator key satisfies the operator

compared to the provided key, otherwise 0 is returned.



## Checking for iterator EOF condition



Sometimes we want to know if the itereator is in EOF state before calling

raxNext() or raxPrev(). The iterator EOF condition happens when there are

no more elements to return via raxNext() or raxPrev() call, because either

raxSeek() failed to seek the requested element, or because EOF was reached

while navigating the tree with raxPrev() and raxNext() calls.



This condition can be tested with the following function that returns 1

if EOF was reached:



    int raxEOF(raxIterator *it);



## Modifying the radix tree while iterating



In order to be efficient, the Rax iterator caches the exact node we are at,

so that at the next iteration step, it can start from where it left.

However an iterator has sufficient state in order to re-seek again

in case the cached node pointers are no longer valid. This problem happens

when we want to modify a radix tree during an iteration. A common pattern

is, for instance, deleting all the elements that match a given condition.



Fortunately there is a very simple way to do this, and the efficiency cost

is only paid as needed, that is, only when the tree is actually modified.

The solution consists of seeking the iterator again, with the current key,

once the tree is modified, like in the following example:



    while(raxNext(&iter,...)) {

        if (raxRemove(rax,...)) {

            raxSeek(&iter,">",iter.key,iter.key_size);

        }

    }



In the above case we are iterating with `raxNext`, so we are going towards

lexicographically greater elements. Every time we remove an element, what we

need to do is to seek it again using the current element and the `>` seek

operator: this way we'll move to the next element with a new state representing

the current radix tree (after the change).



The same idea can be used in different contexts, considering the following:



* Iterators need to be sought again with `raxSeek` every time keys are added or removed while iterating.

* The current iterator key is always valid to access via `iter.key_size` and `iter.key`, even after it was deleted from the radix tree.



## Re-seeking iterators after EOF



After iteration reaches an EOF condition since there are no more elements

to return, because we reached one or the other end of the radix tree, the

EOF condition is permanent, and even iterating in the reverse direction will

not produce any result.



The simplest way to continue the iteration, starting again from the last

element returned by the iterator, is simply to seek itself:



    raxSeek(&iter,iter.key,iter.key_len,"==");



So for example in order to write a command that prints all the elements

of a radix tree from the first to the last, and later again from the last

to the first, reusing the same iterator, it is possible to use the following

approach:



    raxSeek(&iter,"^",NULL,0);

    while(raxNext(&iter,NULL,0,NULL))

        printf("%.*s\n", (int)iter.key_len, (char*)iter.key);



    raxSeek(&iter,"==",iter.key,iter.key_len);

    while(raxPrev(&iter,NULL,0,NULL))

        printf("%.*s\n", (int)iter.key_len, (char*)iter.key);



## Random element selection



To extract a fair element from a radix tree so that every element is returned

with the same probability is not possible if we require that:



1. The radix tree is not larger than expected (for example augmented with information that allows elements ranking).

2. We want the operation to be fast, at worst logarithmic (so things like reservoir sampling are out since it's O(N)).



However a random walk which is long enough, in trees that are more or less balanced, produces acceptable results, is fast, and eventually returns every possible element, even if not with the right probability.



To perform a random walk, just seek an iterator anywhere and call the

following function:



    int raxRandomWalk(raxIterator *it, size_t steps);



If the number of steps is set to 0, the function will perform a number of

random walk steps between 1 and two times the logarithm in base two of the

number of elements inside the tree, which is often enough to get a decent

result. Otherwise, you may specify the exact number of steps to take.



## Printing trees



For debugging purposes, or educational ones, it is possible to use the

following call in order to get an ASCII art representation of a radix tree

and the nodes it is composed of:



    raxShow(mytree);



However note that this works well enough for trees with a few elements, but

becomes hard to read for very large trees.



The following is an example of the output raxShow() produces after adding

the specified keys and values:



* alligator = (nil)

* alien = 0x1

* baloon = 0x2

* chromodynamic = 0x3

* romane = 0x4

* romanus = 0x5

* romulus = 0x6

* rubens = 0x7

* ruber = 0x8

* rubicon = 0x9

* rubicundus = 0xa

* all = 0xb

* rub = 0xc

* ba = 0xd



```

[abcr]

 `-(a) [l] -> [il]

               `-(i) "en" -> []=0x1

               `-(l) "igator"=0xb -> []=(nil)

 `-(b) [a] -> "loon"=0xd -> []=0x2

 `-(c) "hromodynamic" -> []=0x3

 `-(r) [ou]

        `-(o) [m] -> [au]

                      `-(a) [n] -> [eu]

                                    `-(e) []=0x4

                                    `-(u) [s] -> []=0x5

                      `-(u) "lus" -> []=0x6

        `-(u) [b] -> [ei]=0xc

                      `-(e) [nr]

                             `-(n) [s] -> []=0x7

                             `-(r) []=0x8

                      `-(i) [c] -> [ou]

                                    `-(o) [n] -> []=0x9

                                    `-(u) "ndus" -> []=0xa

```



# Running the Rax tests



To run the tests try:



    $ make

    $ ./rax-test



To run the benchmark:



    $ make

    $ ./rax-test --bench



To test Rax under OOM conditions:



    $ make

    $ ./rax-oom-test



The last one is very verbose currently.



In order to test with Valgrind, just run the tests using it, however

if you want accurate leaks detection, let Valgrind run the *whole* test,

since if you stop it earlier it will detect a lot of false positive memory

leaks. This is due to the fact that Rax put pointers at unaligned addresses

with `memcpy`, so it is not obvious where pointers are stored for Valgrind,

that will detect the leaks. However, at the end of the test, Valgrind will

detect that all the allocations were later freed, and will report that

there are no leaks.



# Debugging Rax



While investigating problems in Rax it is possible to turn debugging messages

on by compiling with the macro `RAX_DEBUG_MSG` enabled. Note that it's a lot

of output, and may make running large tests too slow.



In order to active debugging selectively in a dynamic way, it is possible to

use the function raxSetDebugMsg(0) or raxSetDebugMsg(1) to disable/enable

debugging.



A problem when debugging code doing complex memory operations like a radix

tree implemented the way Rax is implemented, is to understand where the bug

happens (for instance a memory corruption). For that goal it is possible to

use the function raxTouch() that will basically recursively access every

node in the radix tree, itearting every sub child. In combination with

tools like Valgrind, it is possible then to perform the following pattern

in order to narrow down the state causing a give bug:



1. The rax-test is executed using Valgrind, adding a printf() so that for

   the fuzz tester we see what iteration in the loop we are in.

2. After every modification of the radix tree made by the fuzz tester

   in rax-test.c, we add a call to raxTouch().

3. Now as soon as an operation will corrupt the tree, raxTouch() will

   detect it (via Valgrind) immediately. We can add more calls to narrow

   the state.

4. At this point a good idea is to enable Rax debugging messages immediately

   before the moment the tree is corrupted, to see what happens. This can

   be achieved by adding a few "if" statements inside the code, since we

   know the iteration that causes the corruption (because of step 1).



This method was used with success during rafactorings in order to debug the

introduced bugs.