Is this redis lua script that deals with key expire race conditions a pure function? - redis

Question

I've been playing around with redis to keep track of the ratelimit of an external api in a distributed system. I've decided to create a key for each route where a limit is present. The value of the key is how many request I can still make until the limit resets. And the reset is made by setting the TTL of the key to when the limit will reset.
For that I wrote the following lua script:
if redis.call("EXISTS", KEYS[1]) == 1 then
local remaining = redis.call("DECR", KEYS[1])
if remaining < 0 then
local pttl = redis.call("PTTL", KEYS[1])
if pttl > 0 then
--[[
-- We would exceed the limit if we were to do a call now, so let's send back that a limit exists (1)
-- Also let's send back how much we would have exceeded the ratelimit if we were to ignore it (ramaning)
-- and how long we need to wait in ms untill we can try again (pttl)
]]
return {1, remaining, pttl}
elseif pttl == -1 then
-- The key expired the instant after we checked that it existed, so delete it and say there is no ratelimit
redis.call("DEL", KEYS[1])
return {0}
elseif pttl == -2 then
-- The key expired the instant after we decreased it by one. So let's just send back that there is no limit
return {0}
end
else
-- Great we have a ratelimit, but we did not exceed it yet.
return {1, remaining}
end
else
return {0}
end
Since a watched key can expire in the middle of a multi transaction without aborting it. I assume the same is the case for lua scripts. Therefore I put in the cases for when the ttl is -1 or -2.
After I wrote that script I looked a bit more in depth at the eval command page and found out that a lua script has to be a pure function.
In there it says
The script must always evaluates the same Redis write commands with
the same arguments given the same input data set. Operations performed
by the script cannot depend on any hidden (non-explicit) information
or state that may change as script execution proceeds or between
different executions of the script, nor can it depend on any external
input from I/O devices.
With this description I'm not sure if my function is a pure function or not.

Answer 1

After Itamar's answer I wanted to confirm that for myself so I wrote a little lua script to test that. The scripts creates a key with a 10ms TTL and checks the ttl untill it's less then 0:
redis.call("SET", KEYS[1], "someVal","PX", 10)
local tmp = redis.call("PTTL", KEYS[1])
while tmp >= 0
do
tmp = redis.call("PTTL", KEYS[1])
redis.log(redis.LOG_WARNING, "PTTL:" .. tmp)
end
return 0
When I ran this script it never terminated. It just went on to spam my logs until I killed the redis server. However time dosen't stand still while the script runs, instead it just stops once the TTL is 0.
So the key ages, it just never expires.

Answer 2

Since a watched key can expire in the middle of a multi transaction without aborting it. I assume the same is the case for lua scripts. Therefore I put in the cases for when the ttl is -1 or -2.
AFAIR that isn't the case w/ Lua scripts - time kinda stops (in terms of TTL at least) when the script's running.
With this description I'm not sure if my function is a pure function or not.
Your script's great (without actually trying to understand what it does), don't worry :)