An abstract cache store class. There are multiple cache store implementations, each having its own additional features. See the classes under the ActiveSupport::Cache module, e.g. ActiveSupport::Cache::MemCacheStore. MemCacheStore is currently the most popular cache store for large production websites.

Some implementations may not support all methods beyond the basic cache methods of fetch, write, read, exist?, and delete.

ActiveSupport::Cache::Store can store any serializable Ruby object.

cache = ActiveSupport::Cache::MemoryStore.new

cache.read("city")   # => nil
cache.write("city", "Duckburgh")
cache.read("city")   # => "Duckburgh"

Keys are always translated into Strings and are case sensitive. When an object is specified as a key, its cache_key method will be called if it is defined. Otherwise, the to_param method will be called. Hashes and Arrays can be used as keys. The elements will be delimited by slashes and Hashes elements will be sorted by key so they are consistent.

cache.read("city") == cache.read(:city)   # => true

Nil values can be cached.

If your cache is on a shared infrastructure, you can define a namespace for your cache entries. If a namespace is defined, it will be prefixed on to every key. The namespace can be either a static value or a Proc. If it is a Proc, it will be invoked when each key is evaluated so that you can use application logic to invalidate keys.

cache.namespace = lambda { @last_mod_time }  # Set the namespace to a variable
@last_mod_time = Time.now  # Invalidate the entire cache by changing namespace

Caches can also store values in a compressed format to save space and reduce time spent sending data. Since there is some overhead, values must be large enough to warrant compression. To turn on compression either pass :compress => true in the initializer or to fetch or write. To specify the threshold at which to compress values, set :compress_threshold. The default threshold is 32K.

Methods
C
D
E
F
I
K
M
N
R
S
W
Attributes
[R] silence
[R] options
[R] silence?
Class Public methods
instrument()

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 176
def self.instrument
  Thread.current[:instrument_cache_store] || false
end
instrument=(boolean)

Set to true if cache stores should be instrumented. Default is false.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 172
def self.instrument=(boolean)
  Thread.current[:instrument_cache_store] = boolean
end
new(options = nil)

Create a new cache. The options will be passed to any write method calls except for :namespace which can be used to set the global namespace for the cache.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 153
def initialize (options = nil)
  @options = options ? options.dup : {}
end
Instance Public methods
cleanup(options = nil)

Cleanup the cache by removing expired entries.

Options are passed to the underlying cache implementation.

All implementations may not support this method.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 425
def cleanup(options = nil)
  raise NotImplementedError.new("#{self.class.name} does not support cleanup")
end
clear(options = nil)

Clear the entire cache. Be careful with this method since it could affect other processes if shared cache is being used.

Options are passed to the underlying cache implementation.

All implementations may not support this method.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 435
def clear(options = nil)
  raise NotImplementedError.new("#{self.class.name} does not support clear")
end
decrement(name, amount = 1, options = nil)

Increment an integer value in the cache.

Options are passed to the underlying cache implementation.

All implementations may not support this method.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 416
def decrement(name, amount = 1, options = nil)
  raise NotImplementedError.new("#{self.class.name} does not support decrement")
end
delete(name, options = nil)

Deletes an entry in the cache. Returns true if an entry is deleted.

Options are passed to the underlying cache implementation.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 371
def delete(name, options = nil)
  options = merged_options(options)
  instrument(:delete, name) do |payload|
    delete_entry(namespaced_key(name, options), options)
  end
end
delete_matched(matcher, options = nil)

Delete all entries with keys matching the pattern.

Options are passed to the underlying cache implementation.

All implementations may not support this method.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 398
def delete_matched(matcher, options = nil)
  raise NotImplementedError.new("#{self.class.name} does not support delete_matched")
end
exist?(name, options = nil)

Return true if the cache contains an entry for the given key.

Options are passed to the underlying cache implementation.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 381
def exist?(name, options = nil)
  options = merged_options(options)
  instrument(:exist?, name) do |payload|
    entry = read_entry(namespaced_key(name, options), options)
    if entry && !entry.expired?
      true
    else
      false
    end
  end
end
fetch(name, options = nil)

Fetches data from the cache, using the given key. If there is data in the cache with the given key, then that data is returned.

If there is no such data in the cache (a cache miss occurred), then nil will be returned. However, if a block has been passed, then that block will be run in the event of a cache miss. The return value of the block will be written to the cache under the given cache key, and that return value will be returned.

cache.write("today", "Monday")
cache.fetch("today")  # => "Monday"

cache.fetch("city")   # => nil
cache.fetch("city") do
  "Duckburgh"
end
cache.fetch("city")   # => "Duckburgh"

You may also specify additional options via the options argument. Setting :force => true will force a cache miss:

cache.write("today", "Monday")
cache.fetch("today", :force => true)  # => nil

Setting :compress will store a large cache entry set by the call in a compressed format.

Setting :expires_in will set an expiration time on the cache. All caches support auto expiring content after a specified number of seconds. This value can be specified as an option to the construction in which call all entries will be affected. Or it can be supplied to the fetch or write method for just one entry.

cache = ActiveSupport::Cache::MemoryStore.new(:expires_in => 5.minutes)
cache.write(key, value, :expires_in => 1.minute)  # Set a lower value for one entry

Setting :race_condition_ttl is very useful in situations where a cache entry is used very frequently and is under heavy load. If a cache expires and due to heavy load seven different processes will try to read data natively and then they all will try to write to cache. To avoid that case the first process to find an expired cache entry will bump the cache expiration time by the value set in :race_condition_ttl. Yes this process is extending the time for a stale value by another few seconds. Because of extended life of the previous cache, other processes will continue to use slightly stale data for a just a big longer. In the meantime that first process will go ahead and will write into cache the new value. After that all the processes will start getting new value. The key is to keep :race_condition_ttl small.

If the process regenerating the entry errors out, the entry will be regenerated after the specified number of seconds. Also note that the life of stale cache is extended only if it expired recently. Otherwise a new value is generated and :race_condition_ttl does not play any role.

# Set all values to expire after one minute.
cache = ActiveSupport::Cache::MemoryCache.new(:expires_in => 1.minute)

cache.write("foo", "original value")
val_1 = nil
val_2 = nil
sleep 60

Thread.new do
  val_1 = cache.fetch("foo", :race_condition_ttl => 10) do
    sleep 1
    "new value 1"
  end
end

Thread.new do
  val_2 = cache.fetch("foo", :race_condition_ttl => 10) do
    "new value 2"
  end
end

# val_1 => "new value 1"
# val_2 => "original value"
# sleep 10 # First thread extend the life of cache by another 10 seconds
# cache.fetch("foo") => "new value 1"

Other options will be handled by the specific cache store implementation. Internally, fetch calls read_entry, and calls write_entry on a cache miss. options will be passed to the read and write calls.

For example, MemCacheStore’s write method supports the :raw option, which tells the memcached server to store all values as strings. We can use this option with fetch too:

cache = ActiveSupport::Cache::MemCacheStore.new
cache.fetch("foo", :force => true, :raw => true) do
  :bar
end
cache.fetch("foo")  # => "bar"

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 271
def fetch(name, options = nil)
  if block_given?
    options = merged_options(options)
    key = namespaced_key(name, options)
    unless options[:force]
      entry = instrument(:read, name, options) do |payload|
        payload[:super_operation] = :fetch if payload
        read_entry(key, options)
      end
    end
    if entry && entry.expired?
      race_ttl = options[:race_condition_ttl].to_f
      if race_ttl and Time.now.to_f - entry.expires_at <= race_ttl
        entry.expires_at = Time.now + race_ttl
        write_entry(key, entry, :expires_in => race_ttl * 2)
      else
        delete_entry(key, options)
      end
      entry = nil
    end

    if entry
      instrument(:fetch_hit, name, options) { |payload| }
      entry.value
    else
      result = instrument(:generate, name, options) do |payload|
        yield
      end
      write(name, result, options)
      result
    end
  else
    read(name, options)
  end
end
increment(name, amount = 1, options = nil)

Increment an integer value in the cache.

Options are passed to the underlying cache implementation.

All implementations may not support this method.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 407
def increment(name, amount = 1, options = nil)
  raise NotImplementedError.new("#{self.class.name} does not support increment")
end
mute()

Silence the logger within a block.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 164
def mute
  previous_silence, @silence = defined?(@silence) && @silence, true
  yield
ensure
  @silence = previous_silence
end
read(name, options = nil)

Fetches data from the cache, using the given key. If there is data in the cache with the given key, then that data is returned. Otherwise, nil is returned.

Options are passed to the underlying cache implementation.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 312
def read(name, options = nil)
  options = merged_options(options)
  key = namespaced_key(name, options)
  instrument(:read, name, options) do |payload|
    entry = read_entry(key, options)
    if entry
      if entry.expired?
        delete_entry(key, options)
        payload[:hit] = false if payload
        nil
      else
        payload[:hit] = true if payload
        entry.value
      end
    else
      payload[:hit] = false if payload
      nil
    end
  end
end
read_multi(*names)

Read multiple values at once from the cache. Options can be passed in the last argument.

Some cache implementation may optimize this method.

Returns a hash mapping the names provided to the values found.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 339
def read_multi(*names)
  options = names.extract_options!
  options = merged_options(options)
  results = {}
  names.each do |name|
    key = namespaced_key(name, options)
    entry = read_entry(key, options)
    if entry
      if entry.expired?
        delete_entry(key, options)
      else
        results[name] = entry.value
      end
    end
  end
  results
end
silence!()

Silence the logger.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 158
def silence!
  @silence = true
  self
end
write(name, value, options = nil)

Writes the value to the cache, with the key.

Options are passed to the underlying cache implementation.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 360
def write(name, value, options = nil)
  options = merged_options(options)
  instrument(:write, name, options) do |payload|
    entry = Entry.new(value, options)
    write_entry(namespaced_key(name, options), entry, options)
  end
end
Instance Protected methods
key_matcher(pattern, options)

Add the namespace defined in the options to a pattern designed to match keys. Implementations that support delete_matched should call this method to translate a pattern that matches names into one that matches namespaced keys.

Source: show | on GitHub 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/cache.rb, line 443
def key_matcher(pattern, options)
  prefix = options[:namespace].is_a?(Proc) ? options[:namespace].call : options[:namespace]
  if prefix
    source = pattern.source
    if source.start_with?('^')
      source = source[1, source.length]
    else
      source = ".*#{source[0, source.length]}"
    end
    Regexp.new("^#{Regexp.escape(prefix)}:#{source}", pattern.options)
  else
    pattern
  end
end