122b7847e5
Problem
-------
Secondary indexes are implemented via materialized views under the
hood. The way an index behaves is determined by the configuration
of the view. Currently, it can be modified by performing the CQL
statement `ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW` on it. However, that raises some
concerns.
Consider, for instance, the following scenario:
1. The user creates a secondary index on a table.
2. In parallel, the user performs writes to the base table.
3. The user modifies the underlying materialized view, e.g. by setting
the `synchronous_updates` to `true` [1].
Some of the writes that happened before step 3 used the default value
of the property (which is `false`). That had an actual consequence
on what happened later on: the view updates were performed
asynchronously. Only after step 3 had finished did it change.
Unfortunately, as of now, there is no way to avoid a situation like
that. Whenever the user wants to configure a secondary index they're
creating, they need to do it in another schema change. Since it's
not always possible to control how the database is manipulated in
the meantime, it leads to problems like the one described.
That's not all, though. The fact that it's not possible to configure
secondary indexes is inconsistent with other schema entities. When
it comes to tables or materialized views, the user always have a means
to set some or even all of the properties during their creation.
Solution
--------
The solution to this problem is extending the `CREATE INDEX` CQL
statement by view properties. The syntax is of form:
```
> CREATE INDEX <index name>
> .. ON <keyspace>.<table> (<columns>)
> .. WITH <properties>
```
where `<properties>` corresponds to both index-specific and view
properties [2, 3]. View properties can only be used with indexes
implemented with materialized views; for example, it will be impossible
to create a vector index when specifying any view property (see
examples below).
When a view property is provided, it will be applied when creating the
underlying materialized view. The behavior should be similar to how
other CQL statements responsible for creating schema entities work.
High-level implementation strategy
----------------------------------
1. Make auxiliary changes.
2. Introduce data structures representing the new set of index
properties: both index-specific and those corresponding to the
underlying view.
3. Extend `CREATE INDEX` to accept view properties.
4. Extend `DESCRIBE INDEX` and other `DESCRIBE` statements to include
view properties in their output.
User documentation is also updated at the steps to reflect the
corresponding changes.
Implementation considerations
-----------------------------
There are a number of schema properties that are now obsolete. They're
accepted by other CQL statements, but they have no effect. They
include:
* `index_interval`
* `replicate_on_write`
* `populate_io_cache_on_flush`
* `read_repair_chance`
* `dclocal_read_repair_chance`
If the user tries to create a secondary index specifying any of those
keywords, the statement will fail with an appropriate error (see
examples below).
Unlike materialized views, we forbid specifying the clustering order
when creating a secondary index [4]. This limitation may be lifted
later on, but it's a detail that may or may not prove troublesome. It's
better to postpone covering it to when we have a better perspective on
the consequences it would bring.
Examples
--------
Good examples
```
> CREATE INDEX idx ON ks.t (v);
> CREATE INDEX idx ON ks.t (v) WITH comment = 'ok view property';
> CREATE INDEX idx ON ks.t (v)
.. WITH comment = 'multiple view properties are ok'
.. AND synchronous_updates = true;
> CREATE INDEX idx ON ks.t (v)
.. WITH comment = 'default value ok'
.. AND synchronous_updates = false;
```
Bad examples
```
> CREATE INDEX idx ON ks.t (v) WITH replicate_on_write = true;
SyntaxException: Unknown property 'replicate_on_write'
> CREATE INDEX idx ON ks.t (v)
.. WITH OPTIONS = {'option1': 'value1'}
.. AND comment = 'some text';
InvalidRequest: Error from server: code=2200 [Invalid query]
message="Cannot specify options for a non-CUSTOM index"
> CREATE CUSTOM INDEX idx ON ks.t (v)
.. WITH OPTIONS = {'option1': 'value1'}
.. AND comment = 'some text';
InvalidRequest: Error from server: code=2200 [Invalid query]
message="CUSTOM index requires specifying the index class"
> CREATE CUSTOM INDEX idx ON ks.t (v)
.. USING 'vector_index'
.. WITH OPTIONS = {'option1': 'value1'}
.. AND comment = 'some text';
InvalidRequest: Error from server: code=2200 [Invalid query]
message="You cannot use view properties with a vector index"
> CREATE INDEX idx ON ks.t (v) WITH CLUSTERING ORDER BY (v ASC);
InvalidRequest: Error from server: code=2200 [Invalid query]
message="Indexes do not allow for specifying the clustering order"
```
and so on. For more examples, see the relevant tests.
References:
[1] https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/branch-2025.4/cql/cql-extensions.html#synchronous-materialized-views
[2] https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/branch-2025.4/cql/secondary-indexes.html#create-index
[3] https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/branch-2025.4/cql/mv.html#mv-options
[4] https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/branch-2025.4/cql/dml/select.html#ordering-clause
Fixes scylladb/scylladb#16454
Backport: not needed. This is an enhancement.
Closes scylladb/scylladb#24977
* github.com:scylladb/scylladb:
cql3: Extend DESC INDEX by view properties
cql3: Forbid using CLUSTERING ORDER BY when creating index
cql3: Extend CREATE INDEX by MV properties
cql3/statements/create_index_statement: Allow for view options
cql3/statements/create_index_statement: Rename member
cql3/statements/index_prop_defs: Re-introduce index_prop_defs
cql3/statements/property_definitions: Add extract_property()
cql3/statements/index_prop_defs.cc: Add namespace
cql3/statements/index_prop_defs.hh: Rename type
cql3/statements/view_prop_defs.cc: Move validation logic into file
cql3/statements: Introduce view_prop_defs.{hh,cc}
cql3/statements/create_view_statement.cc: Move validation of ID
schema/schema.hh: Do not include index_prop_defs.hh
Scylla unit tests using C++ and the Boost test framework
The source files in this directory are Scylla unit tests written in C++ using the Boost.Test framework. These unit tests come in three flavors:
-
Some simple tests that check stand-alone C++ functions or classes use Boost's
BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE. -
Some tests require Seastar features, and need to be declared with Seastar's extensions to Boost.Test, namely
SEASTAR_TEST_CASE. -
Even more elaborate tests require not just a functioning Seastar environment but also a complete (or partial) Scylla environment. Those tests use the
do_with_cql_env()ordo_with_cql_env_thread()function to set up a mostly-functioning environment behaving like a single-node Scylla, in which the test can run.
While we have many tests of the third flavor, writing new tests of this type should be reserved to white box tests - tests where it is necessary to inspect or control Scylla internals that do not have user-facing APIs such as CQL. In contrast, black-box tests - tests that can be written only using user-facing APIs, should be written in one of newer test frameworks that we offer - such as test/cqlpy or test/alternator (in Python, using the CQL or DynamoDB APIs respectively) or test/cql (using textual CQL commands), or - if more than one Scylla node is needed for a test - using the test/topology* framework.
Running tests
Because these are C++ tests, they need to be compiled before running.
To compile a single test executable row_cache_test, use a command like
ninja build/dev/test/boost/row_cache_test
You can also use ninja dev-test to build all C++ tests, or use
ninja deb-build to build the C++ tests and also the full Scylla executable
(however, note that full Scylla executable isn't needed to run Boost tests).
Replace "dev" by "debug" or "release" in the examples above and below to use the "debug" build mode (which, importantly, compiles the test with ASAN and UBSAN enabling on and helps catch difficult-to-catch use-after-free bugs) or the "release" build mode (optimized for run speed).
To run an entire test file row_cache_test, including all its test
functions, use a command like:
build/dev/test/boost/row_cache_test -- -c1 -m1G
to run a single test function test_reproduce_18045() from the longer test
file, use a command like:
build/dev/test/boost/row_cache_test -t test_reproduce_18045 -- -c1 -m1G
In these command lines, the parameters before the -- are passed to
Boost.Test, while the parameters after the -- are passed to the test code,
and in particular to Seastar. In this example Seastar is asked to run on one
CPU (-c1) and use 1G of memory (-m1G) instead of hogging the entire
machine. The Boost.Test option -t test_reproduce_18045 asks it to run just
this one test function instead of all the test functions in the executable.
Unfortunately, interrupting a running test with control-C while doesn't
work. This is a known bug (#5696). Kill a test with SIGKILL (-9) if you
need to kill it while it's running.
Boost tests can also be run using test.py - which is a script that provides a uniform way to run all tests in scylladb.git - C++ tests, Python tests, etc.
Execution with pytest
To run all tests with pytest execute
pytest test/boost
To execute all tests in one file, provide the path to the source filename as a parameter
pytest test/boost/aggregate_fcts_test.cc
Since it's a normal path, autocompletion works in the terminal out of the box.
To execute only one test function, provide the path to the source file and function name
pytest --mode dev test/boost/aggregate_fcts_test.cc::test_aggregate_avg
To provide a specific mode, use the next parameter --mode dev,
if parameter isn't provided pytest tries to use ninja mode_list to find out the compiled modes.
Parallel execution is controlled by pytest-xdist and the parameter -n auto.
This command starts tests with the number of workers equal to CPU cores.
The useful command to discover the tests in the file or directory is
pytest --collect-only -q --mode dev test/boost/aggregate_fcts_test.cc
That will return all test functions in the file.
To execute only one function from the test, you can invoke the output from the previous command.
However, suffix for mode should be skipped.
For example,
output shows in the terminal something like this test/boost/aggregate_fcts_test.cc::test_aggregate_avg.dev.
So to execute this specific test function, please use the next command
pytest --mode dev test/boost/aggregate_fcts_test.cc::test_aggregate_avg
Writing tests
Because of the large build time and build size of each separate test executable, it is recommended to put test functions into relatively large source files. But not too large - to keep compilation time of a single source file (during development) at reasonable levels.
When adding new source files in test/boost, don't forget to list the new source file in configure.py and also in CMakeLists.txt. The former is needed by our CI, but the latter is preferred by some developers.