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EloqKV, a distributed database with Redis compatible API (GPLv2 and AGPLv3)

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Re: EloqKV, a distributed database with Redis compatible API (GPLv2 and AGPLv3)

#11

Post by sneak »

gpm wrote: post #6
wahnfrieden wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do they properly accept contributions under dual licensing in a way that allows them to re-license those contributions? Through CLA? I'm not certain what you're saying is true - dropping one license might be as challenging as changing the license. Maybe I misunderstand

The same way you accept any contribution, because it isn't technically relicensing. You already granted them an AGPLv3 license when you uploaded your change to github without modifying the license file - that's what the "or" in the file means [1] - which entitles them (and anyone else) to create and distribute derivative works under only the AGPLv3 without any GPLv2 grant... [1] Quoting the license file: This softwar…

As a contributor, couldn’t I use it under the terms of the GPL and make GPL-licensed derivative works and ignore their AGPL nonsense? If it is GPL then I understand that I am under no obligation to license my contributions under AGPL.

I am not a lawyer; this is not legal advice.

Re: EloqKV, a distributed database with Redis compatible API (GPLv2 and AGPLv3)

#12

Post by gpm »

sneak wrote: post #11
gpm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same way you accept any contribution, because it isn't technically relicensing. You already granted them an AGPLv3 license when you uploaded your change to github without modifying the license file - that's what the "or" in the file means [1] - which entitles them (and anyone else) to create and distribute derivative works under only the AGPLv3 without any GPLv2 grant... [1] Quoting the license file: This softwar…

As a contributor, couldn’t I use it under the terms of the GPL and make GPL-licensed derivative works and ignore their AGPL nonsense? If it is GPL then I understand that I am under no obligation to license my contributions under AGPL. I am not a lawyer; this is not legal advice.

Yes, of course. Dropping GPL2 support (or you dropping AGPLv3 support in your fork) only affects the future changes made after dropping support... you can't revoke the GPL licenses on the existing commits.

Presumably they aren't going to merge any changes that drop the AGPL license...

Also not a lawyer.

Re: EloqKV, a distributed database with Redis compatible API (GPLv2 and AGPLv3)

#13

Post by actionfromafar »

sneak wrote: post #11
gpm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same way you accept any contribution, because it isn't technically relicensing. You already granted them an AGPLv3 license when you uploaded your change to github without modifying the license file - that's what the "or" in the file means [1] - which entitles them (and anyone else) to create and distribute derivative works under only the AGPLv3 without any GPLv2 grant... [1] Quoting the license file: This softwar…

As a contributor, couldn’t I use it under the terms of the GPL and make GPL-licensed derivative works and ignore their AGPL nonsense? If it is GPL then I understand that I am under no obligation to license my contributions under AGPL. I am not a lawyer; this is not legal advice.

You could license your contributions (if substantial enough to warrant copyright) with any license, for instance BSD 2 clause. (If your license is not compatible with the GPLs they should not accept your contribution.)

Re: EloqKV, a distributed database with Redis compatible API (GPLv2 and AGPLv3)

#14

Post by anonzzzies »

esafak wrote: post #3

It's weird that they don't mention similar distributed NewSQL databases like TiKV, which also has a MySQL layer (TiDB), and position themselves as a Redis replacement.

Tikv is very (very) slow (compared to redis, not sure about elogkv) and it's redis layer seems unmaintained. TiDB is very interesting product ; we tried to replace our massive mysql (master with multi read replica/standby's) system and it is just so slow that it's unusable really. Maybe it's great for other goals though, I don't know; I like the idea so we tried some setups with it.

Re: EloqKV, a distributed database with Redis compatible API (GPLv2 and AGPLv3)

#15

Post by traceroute66 »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #2

This software is provided under a dual license. You may choose to use it under the terms of either: 1. GNU General Public License, Version 2 (GPLv2), or 2. GNU Affero General Public License, Version 3 (AGPLv3). You may use, copy, modify, and distribute this software under the terms of either license, at your option. The full text of both licenses is included below for reference. IANAL, but isn't GPLv2 strictly more p…

I would be honestly interested to know what sort of actual paid-for legal advice they got about this.

IANAL, but dual licensing with two conflicting syles of license just stinks of something that will come back and bite them in the backside big-time in the future.

From a purely practical perspective it is also not clear what the point is ? Because quite clearly the people you want to be subject to AGPL (i.e. the big-evil cloud providers) will simply take you at your word and run under GPL.

Re: EloqKV, a distributed database with Redis compatible API (GPLv2 and AGPLv3)

#17

Post by liunyl »

anonzzzies wrote: post #14
esafak wrote: post #3

It's weird that they don't mention similar distributed NewSQL databases like TiKV, which also has a MySQL layer (TiDB), and position themselves as a Redis replacement.

Tikv is very (very) slow (compared to redis, not sure about elogkv) and it's redis layer seems unmaintained. TiDB is very interesting product ; we tried to replace our massive mysql (master with multi read replica/standby's) system and it is just so slow that it's unusable really. Maybe it's great for other goals though, I don't know; I like the idea so we tried some setups with it.

According to their benchmark results read latency is comparable to redis even under 'Persistent Transactional Mode'. Might be a solid choice for people who don't really need complicated relational database but need the data to be persisted

Re: EloqKV, a distributed database with Redis compatible API (GPLv2 and AGPLv3)

#18

Post by iamlintaoz »

Really appreciate it. I am the CEO of EloqData. We submitted the ShowHN about a year ago [1]. Since then we made a lot of progress, much of the work is based on the feedback from the great HN community, including:

1) Open Source (GPL and AGPL) (thanks PeterZaitsev).

2) Session based transaction in Redis API. (thanks fizx)

3) Better explanation of the architecture [2] (thanks apavlo).

4) Testing with Jepsen (internally, we will do it officially when we have the resource) (thanks jacobn, among others).

Again, thanks, really appreciate the community support. Please go to our website [3] or join our discord channel to provide more feedback.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41590905

[2] https://www.eloqdata.com/blog/2025/07/14/technology

[3] https://eloqdata.com

Re: EloqKV, a distributed database with Redis compatible API (GPLv2 and AGPLv3)

#19

Post by iamlintaoz »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #2

This software is provided under a dual license. You may choose to use it under the terms of either: 1. GNU General Public License, Version 2 (GPLv2), or 2. GNU Affero General Public License, Version 3 (AGPLv3). You may use, copy, modify, and distribute this software under the terms of either license, at your option. The full text of both licenses is included below for reference. IANAL, but isn't GPLv2 strictly more p…

The reason is because we use a layer (our main innovation) called DataSubstrate to build modular databases that support distributed transactions [1]. Because we use some MariaDB code (GPLv2) and some MongoDB code (AGPLv3) in our other projects [2] [3], so we license our DataSubstrate code to be compatible with both, and therefore, we also license EloqKV under both licenses.

[1] https://www.eloqdata.com/blog/2025/07/14/technology

[2] https://github.com/eloqdata/eloqsql

[3] https://github.com/eloqdata/eloqdoc

Re: EloqKV, a distributed database with Redis compatible API (GPLv2 and AGPLv3)

#20

Post by didip »

iamlintaoz wrote: post #18

Really appreciate it. I am the CEO of EloqData. We submitted the ShowHN about a year ago [1]. Since then we made a lot of progress, much of the work is based on the feedback from the great HN community, including: 1) Open Source (GPL and AGPL) (thanks PeterZaitsev). 2) Session based transaction in Redis API. (thanks fizx) 3) Better explanation of the architecture [2] (thanks apavlo). 4) Testing with Jepsen (internall…

Very interesting project. Couple of notes:

* What is the back story here? Why create this in the first place?

* Seems like it's less performant than Dragonfly. Why not consolidate effort and help Dragonfly instead?

* To ride the AI wave, y'all need to gain Vector related features, similarity search, etc.

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