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/dev/null is an ACID compliant database

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Re: /dev/null is an ACID compliant database

#71

Post by mjb »

mjb wrote: post #67

Best of all, /dev/null is also serializable (but not strict serializable) under many academic and textbook definitions. Specifically, these definitions require that transactions appear to execute in some serial order, and place no constraints on that serial order. So the database can issue all reads at time zero, returning empty results, and all writes at the time they happen (because who the hell cares?). The lesson…

This doesn't work as cleanly for SQL-style transactions where there are tons of RW transactions, sadly.

Re: /dev/null is an ACID compliant database

#72

Post by wowczarek »

epistasis wrote: post #43
rezonant wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the best hardware for running a /dev/null instance for production?

I usually do a kubernetes cluster on top of VMs. But sometimes when I really want to scale the standard cloud server less platforms all support /dev/null out of the box. (Except for Windows...)

> Except for Windows...

copy c:\file nul

It's been there since DOS or more likely CP/M :)

Re: /dev/null is an ACID compliant database

#74

Post by charcircuit »

voidfunc wrote: post #66
charcircuit wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a funny one if it was one. Of course something is going to be a bad database if it's not a database.

"Its not funny" says the one guy in a room where literally everyone else is laughing and riffing on the joke. Your humor unit might be defective.

[dead]

Re: /dev/null is an ACID compliant database

#75

Post by PlunderBunny »

nomel wrote: post #50
gchamonlive wrote: post #29

Best stack cloud providers don't want you to know about, /dev/null for db and https://github.com/kelseyhightower/nocode for the backend.

I've never had a single issue with any user after moving our databases to /dev/null.

Did you route the support requests to /dev/null as well?

Re: /dev/null is an ACID compliant database

#76

Post by jfengel »

charcircuit wrote: post #51
chrisweekly wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

seems you've missed the joke

It's not a funny one if it was one. Of course something is going to be a bad database if it's not a database.

It's not a great joke, to be sure. But the essence of it is that it's a good database, by relevant but inappropriate standards.

Re: /dev/null is an ACID compliant database

#77

Post by rkeene2 »

noir_lord wrote: post #22
CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bug free software is a pipe dream, but if there is anything I've never encountered any bugs with, /dev/null and true is certainly in the top 3.

Joking aside I can’t ever remember seeing a bug in either bash or zsh, never seen either crash or segfault and anytime I’ve had weirdness it’s always turned out to be me missing something. Both (along with a lot of the standard utilities) are a testament to what talented C programmers plus years of people beating on them in unintended ways can achieve in terms of reliability/stability.

I had a fun bug where bash would run scripts out of order!

This would lead to impossible states, like

if cat foo | false; then echo hmm; fi

Producing output sometimes, depending on whether or not `cat foo` or `false` return value was used

[0] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bash/2015-06/msg00010...

Re: /dev/null is an ACID compliant database

#78

Post by thelastgallon »

quietbritishjim wrote: post #33
gchamonlive wrote: post #29

Best stack cloud providers don't want you to know about, /dev/null for db and https://github.com/kelseyhightower/nocode for the backend.

WTF is going on with the issues and pull requests for that repo?

Looks like the code for MCP support is reviewed and merged: https://github.com/kelseyhightower/nocode/pull/5540

Re: /dev/null is an ACID compliant database

#79

Post by AdieuToLogic »

noir_lord wrote: post #22
CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bug free software is a pipe dream, but if there is anything I've never encountered any bugs with, /dev/null and true is certainly in the top 3.

Joking aside I can’t ever remember seeing a bug in either bash or zsh, never seen either crash or segfault and anytime I’ve had weirdness it’s always turned out to be me missing something. Both (along with a lot of the standard utilities) are a testament to what talented C programmers plus years of people beating on them in unintended ways can achieve in terms of reliability/stability.

> Joking aside I can’t ever remember seeing a bug in either bash or zsh, never seen either crash or segfault and anytime I’ve had weirdness it’s always turned out to be me missing something.

Given that this statement begins with "joking aside", I have to assume it is either a meta-joke or an uninformed opinion. Taking the subsequent sentence into account thoroughly reinforces the former.

Well played. :-)

Re: /dev/null is an ACID compliant database

#80

Post by mpyne »

jefftk wrote: post #58

"The system transitions from one valid state to another" is clearly false: the system only has a single state.

One of the first state machine you'll ever learn about in undergrad permits transitions from a state back to itself, so I don't see this as a barrier.
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