1c0f8ab66e
When a malformed sstable error occurs, it is usually caused by actual sstable corruption — a cosmic ray, a bad disk write, etc. However, it can also be caused by memory corruption, where a data structure in memory happens to be read as sstable data. In the latter case, having a coredump of the process at the moment of the error is invaluable for post-mortem debugging, since the exception throwing/catching machinery destroys the stack frames that would point to the corruption site. This patch series introduces `--abort-on-malformed-sstable-error`, a new command-line option (with `LiveUpdate` support) that, when set, causes the server to call `std::abort()` instead of throwing an exception whenever any sstable parse error is detected. This covers all code paths: - Direct `throw malformed_sstable_exception(...)` sites (migrated to `throw_malformed_sstable_exception()`) - Direct `throw bufsize_mismatch_exception(...)` sites (migrated to `throw_bufsize_mismatch_exception()`) - `parse_assert()` failures (via `on_parse_error()`) - BTI parse errors (via `on_bti_parse_error()`) The implementation places the flag and helper functions in `sstables/sstables.cc`, next to the existing `on_parse_error()` / `on_bti_parse_error()` infrastructure. The flag defaults to `false`, preserving current behaviour. It is intended to be enabled temporarily when investigating suspected memory corruption. **Commit breakdown:** 1. Infrastructure: flag, getter/setter, and throw helpers in `sstables/sstables.cc`; config option wired up in `main.cc` 2. `on_parse_error()` and `on_bti_parse_error()` check the new flag 3. All ~50 `throw malformed_sstable_exception(...)` sites migrated 4. Both `throw bufsize_mismatch_exception(...)` sites migrated Refs: SCYLLADB-1087 Backport: new feature, no backport Closes scylladb/scylladb#29324 * github.com:scylladb/scylladb: sstables: migrate all bufsize_mismatch_exception throw sites to throw_bufsize_mismatch_exception() sstables: migrate all malformed_sstable_exception throw sites to throw_malformed_sstable_exception() sstables: make on_parse_error() and on_bti_parse_error() respect --abort-on-malformed-sstable-error sstables: disable abort-on-malformed-sstable-error in tests that corrupt sstables on purpose sstables: introduce --abort-on-malformed-sstable-error infrastructure sstables: refactor parse_path() to return std::expected<> instead of throwing
Scylla
What is Scylla?
Scylla is the real-time big data database that is API-compatible with Apache Cassandra and Amazon DynamoDB. Scylla embraces a shared-nothing approach that increases throughput and storage capacity to realize order-of-magnitude performance improvements and reduce hardware costs.
For more information, please see the ScyllaDB web site.
Build Prerequisites
Scylla is fairly fussy about its build environment, requiring very recent versions of the C++23 compiler and of many libraries to build. The document HACKING.md includes detailed information on building and developing Scylla, but to get Scylla building quickly on (almost) any build machine, Scylla offers a frozen toolchain. This is a pre-configured Docker image which includes recent versions of all the required compilers, libraries and build tools. Using the frozen toolchain allows you to avoid changing anything in your build machine to meet Scylla's requirements - you just need to meet the frozen toolchain's prerequisites (mostly, Docker or Podman being available).
Building Scylla
Building Scylla with the frozen toolchain dbuild is as easy as:
$ git submodule update --init --force --recursive
$ ./tools/toolchain/dbuild ./configure.py
$ ./tools/toolchain/dbuild ninja build/release/scylla
For further information, please see:
- Developer documentation for more information on building Scylla.
- Build documentation on how to build Scylla binaries, tests, and packages.
- Docker image build documentation for information on how to build Docker images.
Running Scylla
To start Scylla server, run:
$ ./tools/toolchain/dbuild ./build/release/scylla --workdir tmp --smp 1 --developer-mode 1
This will start a Scylla node with one CPU core allocated to it and data files stored in the tmp directory.
The --developer-mode is needed to disable the various checks Scylla performs at startup to ensure the machine is configured for maximum performance (not relevant on development workstations).
Please note that you need to run Scylla with dbuild if you built it with the frozen toolchain.
For more run options, run:
$ ./tools/toolchain/dbuild ./build/release/scylla --help
Testing
See test.py manual.
Scylla APIs and compatibility
By default, Scylla is compatible with Apache Cassandra and its API - CQL. There is also support for the API of Amazon DynamoDB™, which needs to be enabled and configured in order to be used. For more information on how to enable the DynamoDB™ API in Scylla, and the current compatibility of this feature as well as Scylla-specific extensions, see Alternator and Getting started with Alternator.
Documentation
Documentation can be found here. Seastar documentation can be found here. User documentation can be found here.
Training
Training material and online courses can be found at Scylla University. The courses are free, self-paced and include hands-on examples. They cover a variety of topics including Scylla data modeling, administration, architecture, basic NoSQL concepts, using drivers for application development, Scylla setup, failover, compactions, multi-datacenters and how Scylla integrates with third-party applications.
Contributing to Scylla
If you want to report a bug or submit a pull request or a patch, please read the contribution guidelines.
If you are a developer working on Scylla, please read the developer guidelines.
Contact
- The community forum and Slack channel are for users to discuss configuration, management, and operations of ScyllaDB.
- The developers mailing list is for developers and people interested in following the development of ScyllaDB to discuss technical topics.