https://github.com/marvin-j97/smoltable

Bigtable but smol
https://github.com/marvin-j97/smoltable

bigtable lsm lsm-tree mit-license nosql rust rust-lang wide-column wide-column-database

Last synced: 12 months ago
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Bigtable but smol

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/marvin-j97/smoltable
• Owner: marvin-j97
• License: apache-2.0
• Created: 2023-12-04T19:13:02.000Z (over 2 years ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2025-06-23T23:06:47.000Z (12 months ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-06-24T00:22:57.935Z (12 months ago)
• Topics: bigtable, lsm, lsm-tree, mit-license, nosql, rust, rust-lang, wide-column, wide-column-database
• Language: Rust
• Homepage: https://marvin-j97.github.io/smoltable/
• Size: 2.31 MB
• Stars: 38
• Watchers: 2
• Forks: 1
• Open Issues: 11
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • Funding: .github/FUNDING.yml
  • License: LICENSE-APACHE

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README

          


  





  Bigtable but smol.



## About

[![Documentation](https://img.shields.io/badge/Documentation_here-blue)](https://marvin-j97.github.io/smoltable/)

[![CI](https://github.com/marvin-j97/smoltable/actions/workflows/test.yml/badge.svg?branch=main)](https://github.com/marvin-j97/smoltable/actions/workflows/test.yml)

![MSRV](https://img.shields.io/badge/MSRV-1.75.0-blue)

Smoltable is a tiny wide-column store heavily inspired by [Google Bigtable](https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/de//archive/bigtable-osdi06.pdf). It is implemented in Rust and is based on a [custom-written LSM storage engine](https://github.com/fjall-rs/fjall), also written in Rust. It can be accessed through a JSON REST API, with potential plans for future embeddability.

## Data model

Its data model is essentially the same as Bigtable’s, where:

- each row is identified by its row key

- the table's ordering is determined by the row key

- a row can have arbitrarily many columns

- columns are grouped into column families - each family is sorted by the column's name (column qualifier)

Each row can have a different set of columns (schema-less). The table is sparse, so unused columns do not count into space usage. Each cell value may have multiple values sorted by time. Optionally, old versions can then be lazily & automatically deleted.

In Bigtable, stored values are byte blobs; Smoltable supports multiple data types out of the box:

- string (UTF-8 encoded string)

- boolean (like Byte, but is unmarshalled as boolean)

- byte (unsigned integer, 1 byte)

- i32 (signed integer, 4 bytes)

- i64 (signed integer, 8 bytes)

- f32 (floating point, 4 bytes)

- f64 (floating point, 8 bytes)

Column families can be grouped into locality groups, which partition groups of column families into separate LSM-trees, increasing scan performance over those column families (e.g. OLAP-style queries over a specific column).

## Compatibility

Smoltable is not a replacement for Bigtable, nor is it wire-compatible with it. It is not distributed, but you probably could make it distributed. Then we would have `Bigsmoltable`. But it is a great, inexpensive way to learn about wide-column and single table data design.

## License

All source code is (MIT OR Apache 2.0)-licensed.