From df0f2a3aedc4f20af9647acf1512a4401d4cec2e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: antirez <antirez@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 18 May 2010 18:49:16 +0200
Subject: documentation

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 README | 116 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 116 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 README

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+HIREDIS OVERVIEW
+----------------
+
+Hiredis is a minimalistic C client library for the Redis Database.
+
+It is minimalistic because it just adds minimal support for the protocol, but
+at the same time it uses an high level printf-alike API in order to make it
+much higher level than otherwise suggested by its minimal code base and the
+lack of explicit bindings for every Redis command.
+
+Hiredis only supports the Redis new protocol, so you can use it with any
+Redis version >= 1.2.0.
+
+HIREDIS API
+-----------
+
+Hiredis exports only three function calls:
+
+redisReply *redisConnect(int *fd, char *ip, int port);
+redisReply *redisCommand(int fd, char *format, ...);
+void freeReplyObject(redisReply *r);
+
+The first function is used in order to create a connection to the Redis server:
+
+    redisReply *reply;
+    int fd;
+
+    reply = redisConnect(&fd,"127.0.0.1",6379);
+
+to test for connection errors all it is needed to do is checking if reply
+is not NULL:
+
+    if (reply != NULL) {
+        printf("Connection error: %s\n", reply->reply);
+        freeReplyObject(reply);
+        exit(1);
+    }
+
+When a reply object returns an error, the reply->type is set to the value
+REDIS_REPLY_ERROR, and reply->reply points to a C string with the description
+of the error.
+
+In the above example we don't check for reply->type as redisConnect() can
+only return NULL or a reply object that is actually an error.
+
+As you can see redisConnect() will just set (by reference) the fd variable
+to the file descriptor of the open socket connected to our Redis server.
+
+Calls to redisCommand() will require this file descriptor as first argument.
+
+SENDING COMMNADS
+----------------
+
+Commands are sent using a printf-alike format. In the simplest form it is
+like that:
+
+    reply = redisCommand("SET foo bar");
+
+But you can use "%s" and "%b" format specifiers to create commands in a
+printf-alike fashion:
+
+    reply = redisComand("SET foo %s", somevalue);
+
+If your arguments are binary safe, you can use %b that receives the pointer
+to the buffer and a size_t integer with the length of the buffer.
+
+    reply = redisCommand("SET %s %b", "foo", somevalue, somevalue_length);
+
+Internally Hiredis will split the command in different arguments and will
+convert it to the actual protocol used to communicate with Redis.
+Every space will separate arguments, so you can use interpolation.
+The following example is valid:
+
+    reply = redisCommand("SET key:%s %s", myid, value);
+
+USING REPLIES
+-------------
+
+redisCommand() returns a reply object. In order to use this object you
+need to test the reply->type field, that can be one of the following types:
+
+REDIS_REPLY_ERROR
+    The command returned an error string, that can be read accessing to
+    the reply->reply field.
+
+REDIS_REPLY_STRING
+    The command returned a string, that can be read accessing to the
+    reply->reply field. The string is always nul-termined, but when you
+    need to work with binary-safe strings you can obtain the exact length
+    of the reply with: sdslen(reply->reply).
+
+REDIS_REPLY_ARRAY
+    The command returned an array of reply->elements elements.
+    Every element is a redisReply object, stored at redis->element[..index..]
+    Redis may reply with nexted arrays but this is fully supported.
+
+REDIS_REPLY_INTEGER
+    The command replies with an integer. It's possible to access this integer
+    using the reply->integer field that is of type "long long".
+
+REDIS_REPLY_NIL
+    The command replies with a NIL special object. There is no data to access.
+
+FREEING REPLIES
+---------------
+
+Replies should be freed using the freeReplyObject() function.
+Note that this function will take care of freeing sub-replies objects
+contained in arrays and nested arrays, so there is no need for the user to
+free the sub replies (it is actually harmful and will corrupt the memory).
+
+AUHTOR
+------
+
+Hiredis was written by Salvatore Sanfilippo (antirez at gmail) and is
+released under the BSD license.
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