Software engineering, distributed systems, databases, and the teams that build them
Software engineering, distributed systems, databases, and the teams that build them
rqlite
is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database written in Go. It uses SQLite as its storage engine and Raft for consensus.
I’ve been developing rqlite for about ten years, and until recently, the workflow hadn’t changed much. I write the code. Others contribute here and there. GitHub issues are filed, triaged, and resolved. The usual.
Then language models showed up, and things started to shift.
rqlite is a lightweight, user-friendly, open-source, distributed relational database. It’s written in Go and uses SQLite as its storage engine.
Thanks to Jesus Zazueta there is a new JDBC driver for rqlite. Specifically it’s a Type 4 driver, which means it communicates directly with the rqlite node using its HTTP API.
Be sure to check out the repo on GitHub.
rqlite
is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database written in Go, which uses SQLite as its storage engine and Raft for consensus.
Ten years ago, I tagged the first release of rqlite—a project I started to explore distributed consensus, to learn Go, and to build something useful. I had no roadmap, no plans for scale, and certainly no idea it would still be active a decade later.
Continue reading “rqlite turns 10: Observations from a decade building Distributed Systems”
rqlite
is a lightweight, user-friendly, open-source, distributed relational database. It’s written in Go and uses SQLite as its storage engine.
Version 8.37.0 adds automatic reloading of X.509 certificates and keys. rqlite now monitors the relevant files and reloads them without requiring a restart—removing the need for manual intervention during certificate rotation.
With the CA/Browser Forum reducing TLS certificate lifetimes to 47 days, automated reloads will help operators stay compliant with less effort.
I recently installed the Gemini code review tool for GitHub. It’s free, and installation was easy. Today Gemini found its first real issue with my code. While the bug was very minor, it’s helpful to even have these minor bugs addressed during development.
Otherwise the review feedback provided by Gemini so far has been fine, but nothing spectacular. The rqlite code base is highly structured with clearly-defined interfaces and unit tests. This probably reduces the chance for major improvement.
rqlite
is a lightweight, open-source distributed relational database implemented in Go, and which uses SQLite as its storage engine.
I have developed a new Java client for rqlite. It provides minimal abstraction and interacts directly with the rqlite HTTP API. Of particular note is the method of its creation: I fed the latest Go client source code into ChatGPT (o3-mini-high), which then produced a corresponding Java implementation. The initial output required only minor adjustments and now appears to be fully functional.
Who needs a transpiler when you’ve got GenAI?
rqlite
is a lightweight, open-source distributed relational database implemented in Go, and which uses SQLite as its storage engine.
I’ve decided to code a new, high-quality HTTP client library for rqlite. My hope is that this library will be useful on its own or as a foundation for higher-level libraries. Once written I may then have GPT generate versions in other languages from the Go source.
Developing Go applications often involves managing numerous command-line options, which can quickly become tedious to handle and document. Enter flagforge, a tool designed to automate the entire process.
Continue reading “Introducing flagforge: Simplifying Go Flag Code Generation”
Artifact Hub
is a web-based application that enables finding, installing, and publishing Cloud Native packages and configurations. The official rqlite Helm charts have now been published there.
Many thanks to Jason Tackaberry for putting this together.
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database written in Go, and built on SQLite and Raft. With its origins dating back to 2014, its design has always prioritized reliability, and quality. The robustness of rqlite is also a testament to its disciplined testing strategy: after more than 10 years of development and deployments, users have reported fewer than 10 instances of panics in production.
Testing a distributed system like rqlite is no small feat. It requires careful consideration of various layers: from individual components to the entire system in operation. Let’s explore how rqlite is tested, following its philosophy of maintaining quality without unnecessary complexity.
rqlite is a lightweight, user-friendly, open-source, distributed relational database. It’s written in Go and uses SQLite as its storage engine. rqlite has received several important updates in recent weeks. These updates, spanning versions 8.34.0 through 8.36.0, introduce new features and make significant improvements to the database’s implementation and usability.
Continue reading “rqlite 8.34.0 to 8.36.0: New Features and Enhancements”
rqlite is a lightweight, user-friendly, open-source, distributed relational database. It’s written in Go and uses SQLite as its storage engine.
I’ve added a new Configuration Guide for rqlite, which has been regularly requested. rqlite has many options and although the defaults work for the vast majority of use cases, occasionally rqlite requires some operational tweaks.
rqlite is a lightweight, user-friendly, open-source, distributed relational database. It’s written in Go and uses SQLite as its storage engine.
Release 8.33.0 is out now and adds support for automatic rewriting of SQLite Date and Time functions. This removes another source of non-determinism from rqlite, allowing these functions to be used when working rqlite.
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database. It’s written in Go, built on the Raft consensus algorithm, and uses SQLite as its storage engine. With release 8.32, rqlite now supports fast, reliable, Linearizable reads—delivering strong consistency guarantees without the performance costs of the past.
Distributed systems present many challenges, but there is only one really hard problem: ensuring a consistent state across nodes, even in the face of network partitions, machine failures, or unexpected bugs. And a closely related requirement is ensuring up-to-date data reads — both requirements are the essential challenges that every distributed database must address.
Continue reading “Faster Reads, Same Guarantees: Linearizable Consistency in rqlite 8.32”
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database written in Go, which uses SQLite as its storage engine.
Concurrency and synchronization are at the heart of any database — and distributed systems too. Today, I’d like to share the set of synchronization primitives and race-free data structures I’ve developed for rqlite, and explain how I use them to program key aspects of the database. They might even be useful to others confronted with similar requirements.
Continue reading “Concurrency Control in Go: Inside rqlite’s Custom Synchronization Primitives”
rqlite is a lightweight, user-friendly, open-source, distributed relational database. It’s written in Go and uses SQLite as its storage engine.
Release 8.31.0 is out now and adds support for inserting BLOB data as Parameterized Values. This should make it even easier to insert such data into rqlite, improving its usefulness as a data store.
After four years of running this blog on Google Cloud, I’ve migrated it to WordPress.com. The migration process was hassle-free and worked quite well. The only unexpected change I had to make was to transfer philipotoole.com to WordPress, as Cloudflare‘s Terms of Service prohibit you from deleting their nameservers!
rqlite
is a lightweight, user-friendly, open-source, distributed relational database. It’s written in Go and uses SQLite as its storage engine.
Release 8.30.0 is out now and adds support for Automatic Optimize.
Continue reading “rqlite 8.30.0: Introducing Automatic Database Optimization”
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source distributed relational database implemented in Go, and which uses SQLite as its storage engine.
Stephen Blum, CTO at PubNub has produced an informative video on rqlite. In it Stephen gives an overview of deploying rqlite, as well as showing basic interaction with the API.
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source distributed relational database implemented in Go, and which uses SQLite as its storage engine.
Release v8.29.0 bakes more SQLite extensions into the Docker image, as well as improving extension management generally.
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source distributed relational database implemented in Go, and which uses SQLite as its storage engine.
With the release of rqlite 8.28.3, working with SQLite extensions in a Docker environment has become even more straightforward.
Continue reading “rqlite 8.28: Enhanced Docker Support for Seamless SQLite Extension Loading”
rqlite
is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database written in Go. It is built on the Raft consensus protocol and uses SQLite as its storage engine.
Release v8.27.0 introduces the capability to load SQLite extensions at startup, significantly expanding the functionality available within rqlite.
Continue reading “rqlite 8.27: loadable SQLite extensions support”
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database written in Go. It is built on the Raft consensus protocol and uses SQLite as its storage engine.
Development of 9.0 has begun and aims to reduce disk usage by approximately 50%. This goal will be achieved through a high-level design overhaul targeting the primary causes of disk consumption in rqlite.
Continue reading “Building rqlite 9.0: Cutting Disk Usage by Half”
