How to “EXPIRE” the “HSET” child key in redis?

Question

I need to expire all keys in redis hash, which are older then 1 month.

Answer 1

This is not possible, for the sake of keeping Redis simple.

Quoth Antirez, creator of Redis:

Hi, it is not possible, either use a different top-level key for that specific field, or store along with the filed another field with an expire time, fetch both, and let the application understand if it is still valid or not based on current time.

Answer 2

You can. Here is an example.

redis 127.0.0.1:6379> hset key f1 1
(integer) 1
redis 127.0.0.1:6379> hset key f2 2
(integer) 1
redis 127.0.0.1:6379> hvals key
1) "1"
2) "1"
3) "2"
redis 127.0.0.1:6379> expire key 10
(integer) 1
redis 127.0.0.1:6379> hvals key
1) "1"
2) "1"
3) "2"
redis 127.0.0.1:6379> hvals key
1) "1"
2) "1"
3) "2"
redis 127.0.0.1:6379> hvals key

Use EXPIRE or EXPIREAT command.

If you want to expire specific keys in the hash older then 1 month. This is not possible. Redis expire command is for all keys in the hash. If you set daily hash key, you can set a keys time to live.

hset key-20140325 f1 1
expire key-20140325 100
hset key-20140325 f1 2

Answer 3

You could store key/values in Redis differently to achieve this, by just adding a prefix or namespace to your keys when you store them e.g. "hset_"

• Get a key/value GET hset_key equals to HGET hset key

• Add a key/value SET hset_key value equals to HSET hset key

• Get all keys KEYS hset_* equals to HGETALL hset

• Get all vals should be done in 2 ops, first get all keys KEYS hset_* then get the value for each key

• Add a key/value with TTL or expire which is the topic of question: SET hset_key value EXPIRE hset_key

Answer 4

Regarding a NodeJS implementation, I have added a custom expiryTime field in the object I save in the HASH. Then after a specific period time, I clear the expired HASH entries by using the following code:

client.hgetall(HASH_NAME, function(err, reply) {
    if (reply) {
        Object.keys(reply).forEach(key => {
            if (reply[key] && JSON.parse(reply[key]).expiryTime < (new Date).getTime()) {
                client.hdel(HASH_NAME, key);
            }
        })
    }
});

Answer 5

There is a Redisson java framework which implements hash Map object with entry TTL support. It uses hmap and zset Redis objects under the hood. Usage example:

RMapCache<Integer, String> map = redisson.getMapCache('map');
map.put(1, 30, TimeUnit.DAYS); // this entry expires in 30 days

This approach is quite useful.

Answer 6

You can expire Redis hashes in ease, Eg using python

import redis
conn = redis.Redis('localhost')
conn.hmset("hashed_user", {'name': 'robert', 'age': 32})
conn.expire("hashed_user", 10)

This will expire all child keys in hash hashed_user after 10 seconds

same from redis-cli,

127.0.0.1:6379> HMSET testt username wlc password P1pp0 age 34
OK
127.0.0.1:6379> hgetall testt
1) "username"
2) "wlc"
3) "password"
4) "P1pp0"
5) "age"
6) "34"
127.0.0.1:6379> expire testt 10
(integer) 1
127.0.0.1:6379> hgetall testt
1) "username"
2) "wlc"
3) "password"
4) "P1pp0"
5) "age"
6) "34"

after 10 seconds

127.0.0.1:6379> hgetall testt
(empty list or set)