loaderx 0.4.1__tar.gz → 0.5.4__tar.gz

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+ # The sdist ships sources, not binaries: the shared objects are platform
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+ # specific and `setup.py` rebuilds them with Zig when they are missing.
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+ include build.zig
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+ include build.zig.zon
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+ include LICENSE
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+ recursive-include src *.zig
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+ recursive-include tests *.py
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+ recursive-include scripts *.py
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+
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+ exclude loaderx/lib/lib_here
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+ recursive-exclude loaderx/lib *.so *.dylib *.dll *.pdb *.lib
loaderx-0.5.4/PKG-INFO ADDED
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+ Metadata-Version: 2.4
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+ Name: loaderx
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+ Version: 0.5.4
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+ Summary: A compact, high-performance persistent record store with zero-copy batch gathering and transparent per-record compression, designed for single-machine AI training and serving pipelines
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+ Author-email: Ben0i0d <ben0i0d@foxmail.com>
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+ License: MIT License
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+
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+ Copyright (c) 2025 EOELAB AI Research
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+
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+ Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
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+ of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
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+ in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
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+ to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
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+ copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
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+ furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
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+
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+ The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
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+ copies or substantial portions of the Software.
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+
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+ THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
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+ IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
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+ FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
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+ AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
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+ LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
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+ OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
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+ SOFTWARE.
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+
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+ Project-URL: Homepage, https://codeberg.org/eoelab/loaderx
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+ Project-URL: Documentation, https://codeberg.org/eoelab/loaderx
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+ Project-URL: Source, https://codeberg.org/eoelab/loaderx
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+ Project-URL: Bug Tracker, https://codeberg.org/eoelab/loaderx
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+ Keywords: flax,python,dataloader
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+ Classifier: Development Status :: 3 - Alpha
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+ Classifier: Intended Audience :: Developers
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+ Classifier: License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License
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+ Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3
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+ Classifier: Operating System :: POSIX :: Linux
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+ Classifier: Operating System :: MacOS :: MacOS X
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+ Classifier: Operating System :: Microsoft :: Windows
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+ Requires-Python: >=3.10
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+ Description-Content-Type: text/markdown
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+ License-File: LICENSE
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+ Requires-Dist: numpy
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+ Requires-Dist: cffi
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+ Dynamic: license-file
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+
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+ # Loaderx
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+ A compact, high-performance persistent record store with zero-copy batch gathering and transparent per-record compression, designed for single-machine AI training and serving pipelines
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+
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+ ```
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+ pip install loaderx
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+ ```
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+
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+ Wheels are published for Linux (glibc ≥ 2.17 and musl, x86-64 and arm64), macOS
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+ (≥ 11.0, Intel and Apple Silicon) and Windows (x64 and arm64). The bindings use
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+ cffi in ABI mode, so nothing links against the CPython ABI and one wheel per
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+ platform serves every supported Python.
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+
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+ ## Design Philosophy
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+
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+ loaderx is built around several core principles:
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+
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+ 1. A pragmatic approach that prioritizes minimal memory overhead and minimal dependencies.
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+ 2. A strong focus on single-machine training workflows.
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+ 3. We implement based on NumPy semantics, persisted through the Zrecord storage runtime.
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+ 4. An **immortal (endless) step-based data loader**, rather than the traditional epoch-based design—better aligned with modern ML training practices.
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+
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+ ## Quick Start
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+ ```python
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+ from loaderx import Dataset, DataLoader
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+
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+ dataset = Dataset('train_data.zr')
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+ labelset = Dataset('train_label.zr')
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+
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+ loader = DataLoader(dataset, labelset)
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+
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+ for i, batch in enumerate(loader):
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+ if i >= 256:
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+ break
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+
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+ print(batch['data'].shape)
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+ print(batch['label'].shape)
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+ ```
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+
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+ ### Converting a NumPy tensor
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+ ```python
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+ import numpy as np
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+ from loaderx import Dataset
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+
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+ Dataset.write('train_data.zr', np.load('data.npy', mmap_mode='r'))
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+ Dataset.write('train_label.zr', np.load('label.npy', mmap_mode='r'))
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+ ```
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+ One record per slice along axis 0; a 1-D array (the usual shape of a label set)
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+ becomes a dataset of scalars. The conversion streams in bounded chunks, so an
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+ mmapped array is never fully materialized.
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+
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+ `Dataset` keeps a single `schema.json` inside the store recording the per-sample
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+ dtype and shape — that is the only loaderx-level metadata. Everything beneath it
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+ is plain Zrecord, reachable through `loaderx.Zrecord` when you want raw byte
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+ records (ragged samples, pre-encoded images) instead of tensors.
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+
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+ ### Removing samples
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+ ```python
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+ ds = Dataset('train_data.zr')
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+ ds.delete([7, 12, 40]) # len shrinks; survivors stay addressable as 0..len
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+ ds.compact() # reclaim the freed space on disk
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+ print(ds.stats()) # {'records': ..., 'live_bytes': ..., 'reclaimable': ...}
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+ ```
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+ Deletion keeps the index space dense, which is what the sampler needs — but it
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+ does so by moving the tail into the hole, so surviving samples may change index.
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+ Do not hold indices across a delete. Both calls require exclusive access; do not
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+ run them while a `DataLoader` is iterating the dataset.
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+
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+ ### Integrating with JAX/Flax
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+
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+ For practical integration examples, please refer to the **[Data2Latent](https://codeberg.org/eoelab/Data2Latent)** repository
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+
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+ ## Benchmarks
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+
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+ `scripts/bench.py` measures loaderx against the alternatives in three layers —
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+ the index sampler, the record store, and the full data loader — each through the
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+ binding a client actually uses, so cffi, the GIL and the NumPy allocation are all
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+ inside the timings. The numbers below are one run on a 24-core machine, Python
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+ 3.14, warm page cache. Reproduce with `python3 scripts/bench.py all`.
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+
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+ **1. Sampler** — index generation on its own, IID (with replacement), 1M index
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+ space, against both NumPy random APIs.
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+
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+ | sampler | batch | per batch | indices | vs default_rng |
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+ |-------------------|-------|-----------|-----------|----------------|
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+ | numpy randint | 256 | 5.9 µs | 44 M/s | 0.64x |
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+ | numpy default_rng | 256 | 3.7 µs | 69 M/s | 1.00x |
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+ | **zsampler** | 256 | 1.9 µs | 138 M/s | **2.01x** |
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+ | numpy randint | 1024 | 7.2 µs | 142 M/s | 0.83x |
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+ | numpy default_rng | 1024 | 6.0 µs | 171 M/s | 1.00x |
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+ | **zsampler** | 1024 | 3.0 µs | 340 M/s | **1.99x** |
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+ | numpy randint | 8192 | 25.6 µs | 320 M/s | 0.65x |
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+ | numpy default_rng | 8192 | 16.6 µs | 493 M/s | 1.00x |
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+ | **zsampler** | 8192 | 7.8 µs | 1048 M/s | **2.13x** |
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+
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+ Zsampler draws indices about 2x faster than NumPy's faster API — more against the
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+ legacy `randint` most code still calls — and the lead is widest at the small
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+ batches a loader actually draws, where a batch is one cffi call either way and
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+ NumPy's vectorised fill has nothing to amortise. The one concession: zsampler's
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+ IID draw is modulo-biased where NumPy's is not, ~1e-13 over a u64 draw into a
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+ million-record space, which is below anything training will notice.
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+
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+ **2. Store** — random batch gather, 20000 records × 12 KiB `uint8(3,64,64)`,
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+ batch 256 × 200, structured (mildly compressible) data.
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+
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+ | store | write | gather | per batch | on disk | ratio |
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+ |---------------|------------|-------------|------------|---------|-------|
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+ | loaderx-flate | 362 MiB/s | 1671 MiB/s | 1.80 ms | 209 MiB | 1.12x |
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+ | loaderx-raw | 784 MiB/s | 21997 MiB/s | 0.14 ms | 235 MiB | 1.00x |
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+ | npy-mmap | 3064 MiB/s | 13692 MiB/s | 0.22 ms | 234 MiB | 1.00x |
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+ | arrayrecord | 374 MiB/s | 847 MiB/s | 3.54 ms | 217 MiB | 1.08x |
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+ | hdf5 | 1327 MiB/s | 511 MiB/s | 5.87 ms | 236 MiB | 0.99x |
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+ | hdf5-gzip | 83 MiB/s | 206 MiB/s | 14.57 ms | 211 MiB | 1.11x |
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+ | lmdb | 677 MiB/s | 5337 MiB/s | 0.56 ms | 313 MiB | 0.75x |
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+ | lmdb-zlib | 71 MiB/s | 336 MiB/s | 8.93 ms | 235 MiB | 1.00x |
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+ | blosc2 | 32 MiB/s | 226 MiB/s | 13.27 ms | 216 MiB | 1.09x |
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+ | zarr | 83 MiB/s | 28 MiB/s | 107.36 ms | 217 MiB | 1.08x |
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+ | tensorstore | 531 MiB/s | 98 MiB/s | 30.69 ms | 214 MiB | 1.09x |
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+
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+ The gather column is what the store is built for. loaderx-raw returns a scattered
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+ batch faster than everything here, a memory-mapped `.npy` included, because it
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+ copies straight into the destination across all cores with the GIL released;
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+ loaderx-flate keeps most of that speed *while* decompressing, and still gathers
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+ several times faster than any other compressed store (hdf5-gzip, lmdb-zlib,
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+ blosc2, zarr, tensorstore). The array stores lag on gather because a scattered
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+ single-record read fights a layout meant for contiguous slabs — which is exactly
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+ the access pattern a training loader has. Where loaderx does not lead is write: it
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+ pays compression and its own layout up front, a one-time cost it does not chase.
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+ Compression is modest (1.12x) only because this data is barely compressible; the
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+ row's point is that turning it on costs almost nothing on read.
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+
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+ The reads are not all single-threaded: loaderx and blosc2 decompress across cores,
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+ the rest one record at a time. Zarr and TensorStore are sharded so `on disk`
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+ reflects compression rather than per-file block rounding, and TensorStore is given
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+ gzip (its zarr3 default is uncompressed). `on disk` is allocated blocks, which is
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+ why LMDB's preallocated map lands below 1.00x.
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+
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+ **3. Loader** — the full input pipeline end to end (sample, fetch, collate, hand
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+ over a batch), same workload, 4 workers. Each loader reads from what it is built
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+ for: loaderx from Zrecord, Grain from ArrayRecord, torch from a memory-mapped
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+ `.npy`, jax-dataloader from an in-memory array.
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+
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+ | loader | batches/s | per batch | samples/s | throughput |
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+ |----------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-------------|
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+ | **loaderx** | 724.2 | 1.38 ms | 185,406 | 2173 MiB/s |
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+ | loaderx-raw | 5271.0 | 0.19 ms | 1,349,378 | 15813 MiB/s |
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+ | grain | 67.3 | 14.85 ms | 17,240 | 202 MiB/s |
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+ | torch | 832.2 | 1.20 ms | 213,038 | 2497 MiB/s |
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+ | jax-dataloader | 3284.6 | 0.30 ms | 840,864 | 9854 MiB/s |
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+
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+ End to end, loaderx-raw serves batches several times faster than torch or Grain
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+ and ahead of jax-dataloader — and it does so from disk-backed storage, where
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+ jax-dataloader's number is an in-memory ceiling with no storage path at all. The
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+ default loaderx trades some of that for on-disk compression and still lands in
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+ torch's range while reading compressed records. loaderx and jax use threads;
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+ torch and Grain use worker processes that escape the GIL but pay IPC per batch.
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+ loaderx never ends an epoch, so no step waits on a boundary; the others restart
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+ per epoch, a cost that is in their numbers as it would be in training.
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+
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+ ## Current Limitations
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+ * Single-host only; multi-host training is not supported.
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+ * A single sample must be at most 1 MiB, and a store holds at most 2^24
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+ (16777216) records.
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+ * Metadata is mapped and used in place, so a store carries the host's byte
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+ order and is not portable to a machine of the opposite endianness. Every
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+ published platform is little-endian, so this only matters if you build for
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+ one yourself.
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+
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+ ## Build
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+ ```
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+ zig build # host shared objects, into loaderx/lib/
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+ zig build test # Zrecord suite, in both Debug and ReleaseFast
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+ python3 tests/test_loaderx.py # Python layer, against whichever build is importable
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+ python3 scripts/bench.py # throughput, against other stores
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+ ```
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+
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+ The Zig side is tested for behaviour only; throughput is measured from Python,
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+ through the binding a client actually uses. `scripts/bench.py` runs in three
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+ layers (`sampler`, `store`, `loader`, or `all`) and skips contenders that are not
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+ installed. See [Benchmarks](#benchmarks).
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+
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+ ### Publishing
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+ Zig cross-compiles every target from one machine, so releases need no CI matrix:
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+
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+ ```
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+ zig build dist # every platform, into zig-out/dist/<wheel tag>/
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+ python3 scripts/build_wheels.py # one wheel per platform, plus the sdist
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+ ```
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+
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+ The dist directories are named after their Python wheel platform tag, so the tag
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+ mapping lives in exactly one place (`dist_targets` in `build.zig`). glibc and
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+ macOS minimums are pinned in the target triple, which is what makes
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+ `manylinux_2_17` and `macosx_11_0` honest rather than aspirational. Each wheel is
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+ checked after packing: it must carry this platform's libraries and no others.
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+
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+ The sdist ships sources only. Installing from it runs `zig build` through
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+ `setup.py`, so it needs the Zig compiler; wheel users never hit that path.
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+
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+ ---
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+
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+ # Zsampler
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+ Index Generator: a high-performance sampler implemented in Zig
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+
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+ 1. Sequential generation: indices are produced by traversing the index space in order.
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+ * Sliding traversal: indices are obtained using a fixed-size sliding window. Note that in this case, the index space is treated as a circular queue to avoid truncation at the tail.
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+ 2. Random generation: indices are sampled randomly from the index space.
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+ * Global random: a set of samples is drawn randomly from the entire index space.
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+
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+ ---
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+
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+ # Zrecord
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+ A record-based data runtime, focused on delivering extreme throughput and low latency.
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+
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+ 1. Zrecord is an unordered physical store made of N records. Records are
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+ independent and carry no ordering, so every index and slice operation is
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+ equivalent to a gather.
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+ 2. Zrecord hands the client a dense index space: the live records are always
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+ exactly `0..N`. Deletion preserves that by swapping the tail into the hole,
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+ which means an index is stable only until something is deleted. A
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+ multi-stream dataset is purely a client-side notion; the client keeps its
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+ own stream index table pointing at records.
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+ 3. Zrecord returns byte arrays. Type interpretation is the client's job.
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+ 4. For performance, the IO model (`append | read | delete`) is batch-oriented;
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+ a single-record operation is just the `batch_size == 1` case.
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+ 5. Zrecord owns its memory internally — allocation and release are explicit.
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+ 6. Each record is compressed and decompressed independently:
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+
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+ ```
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+ | tag | name | algorithm |
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+ |-------|---------|-----------|
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+ | 0 | raw | none |
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+ | 1 | flate | Deflate |
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+ ```
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+
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+ 7. Compression is transparent to the client:
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+ * Compression runs concurrently across all cores. A record that fails to
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+ shrink is stored raw automatically, so reading never costs more than the
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+ data itself.
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+ * Decompression writes straight into the caller's destination memory
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+ (`gather`), with no intermediate buffer and no extra copy.
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+
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+ ## Persistence format
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+ Zrecord storage is metadata plus chunked data:
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+ ```
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+ zrecord/
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+ ├── meta.zr
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+ ├── 0.zr
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+ └── 1.zr
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+ ```
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+
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+ ### Metadata (meta.zr)
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+
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+ meta.zr is **used as the values it holds, not decoded into them**. Both structs
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+ below are `extern`, 16 bytes, and naturally aligned; an mmap is page aligned, so
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+ the header is a `*Header` and the record table is a `[]RecordLoc`. Looking up a
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+ record is `table[idx]`, and there is no serializer anywhere in the code.
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+
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+ The fields are deliberately wider than the limits need — `chunk_id` is a `u16`
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+ for 4096 chunks, the lengths are `u32` for a 1 MiB cap. Bit-packing them would
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+ save 5 bytes per record and cost a hand-written codec on the hottest lookup
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+ path. The slack buys a machine-shaped array; it is worth it.
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+
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+ **1. Header** — 16 bytes of global state.
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+ * `magic` (`ZREC`) and `version` are ordinary fields, so opening a directory
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+ that is not a Zrecord store fails immediately instead of decoding garbage.
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+ * `length` is the total number of records | `tail_chunk`/`tail_offset` mark the
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+ last write position.
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+ * There is no chunk count. Chunks are created in order and the frontier is
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+ always in the last one, so the store holds exactly chunks `0..=tail_chunk` —
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+ a count would be a second copy of that fact to keep in sync.
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+
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+ ```zig
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+ const Header = extern struct {
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+ magic: [4]u8, version: u16,
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+ tail_chunk: u16, tail_offset: u32,
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+ length: u32,
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+ };
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+ ```
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+
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+ **2. Record table** — 16 bytes per entry, indexed directly. Mapping an index to
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+ a physical address is what makes random access efficient.
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+ * `chunk_id` is the containing chunk | `offset` is the position within it |
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+ `phys_length`/`logic_length` are the stored and original sizes | `compress` is
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+ the algorithm.
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+
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+ ```zig
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+ const Codec = enum(u8) { raw = 0, flate = 1, _ };
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+ const RecordLoc = extern struct {
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+ offset: u32, phys_length: u32, logic_length: u32,
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+ chunk_id: u16, compress: Codec, _reserved: u8,
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+ };
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+ ```
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+
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+ There is no liveness flag. Every entry below `length` is live, because deletion
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+ swaps the tail into the hole rather than tombstoning.
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+
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+ **3. Maximum length.** Running out of space is effectively impossible, so the
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+ metadata is sized statically at the maximum.
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+ * Current design: up to 2^12 (4096) chunks, 2^32 (4 GiB) per chunk, 2^20 (1 MiB)
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+ per record.
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+ * Derivation: N = chunks × 2^32 (chunk size) / 2^20 (max record size) ⇒ a
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+ maximum length of 2^24 (16777216). Equality here is the point: the store can
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+ never run out of chunks before it runs out of record slots, which is what
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+ lets the table be sized statically. It is a compile-time assertion.
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+ * meta.zr is a fixed 16 + 2^24 × 16 bytes (256 MiB). It is sparse — a store
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+ with one record allocates 4 KiB of it — and the mapping does not prefault.
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+
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+ ### Chunk data (x.zr)
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+ Densely packed record data.
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+
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+ ## Executor
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+
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+ **1. Write.** Writes are append-only; everything else is offset redirection.
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+ * Append: compress concurrently → assign physical locations serially → flush
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+ concurrently → commit metadata. Data is durable-ordered before the record
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+ table, and the table before `length`, so a crash truncates rather than
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+ corrupts. A record never straddles two chunks; one that would not fit rolls
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+ over to a fresh chunk.
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+ * Delete: swap the last table entry into the deleted slot and drop the length by
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+ one. A batch is applied in descending index order, so each swap pulls from a
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+ slot no later target refers to. The index space stays dense — which is what
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+ the sampler needs, since it draws uniformly from `0..N` and would otherwise
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+ keep hitting holes. The deleted record's bytes become garbage.
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+
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+ **2. Read.** Fill the destination memory concurrently, in place from the Python
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+ side (executed on async threads).
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+ * Committed records are immutable, so the read path is lock free; `length` is
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+ published to readers through an atomic.
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+
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+ **3. Concurrency model.** `Io.Group.async` shards work by CPU count, and shards
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+ beyond the limit run inline on the calling thread.
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+ * Shards receive contiguous blocks rather than a strided subset, keeping each
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+ worker's reads and writes sequential.
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+ * Each shard reuses one compressor scratch (`flate.Compress` is ~230 KiB — far
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+ too large to rebuild per record, let alone to place on a task stack).
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+ * Decompression runs in direct mode: matches are resolved against the bytes
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+ already written into the destination, so there is no window buffer.
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+
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+ **4. Garbage collection.** Deletion leaves the record's bytes stranded, so space
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+ is reclaimed by an offline `compact` that rewrites the live records in place.
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+ * Records are visited in *physical* order — which after swap-last deletes no
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+ longer matches table order — and repacked densely in that same order. A record
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+ therefore never moves to a higher address than it already had.
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+ * Two things follow. Writing a record can never land on the bytes of a record
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+ not yet moved, so the rewrite is safe in place with no scratch copy of the
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+ store. And each table entry can be updated the instant its record lands, so
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+ the store is consistent at every point: an interrupted compaction leaves some
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+ records moved and the rest where they were, and re-running finishes the job.
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+ * Records that are already in the right place are skipped, so a store with a
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+ small amount of garbage near the end is cheap to compact.
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+ * Chunk files past the new frontier are closed and deleted.
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+ * `stats()` reports `live_bytes` against `chunk_bytes` so callers can decide when
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+ it is worth running. Note the difference is an upper bound: a record never
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+ straddles a chunk boundary, so up to one record's worth per chunk is slack
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+ that compaction cannot remove.
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+
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+ **5. File access.**
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+ * Metadata: a 192 MiB file created at init, accessed by mmap thereafter.
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+ * Chunk data: 4 GiB files created at init, accessed concurrently through
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+ `readPositionalAll`/`writePositionalAll`.
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+
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+ **Concurrency contract.** `gather` and `append` are safe to call concurrently
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+ from many threads. `delete` and `compact` mutate the table in ways a lock-free
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+ reader would observe half-applied, so they require exclusive access to the
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+ store.
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+
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+ ## Distributed extension
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+ **Not implemented yet; architecture noted in advance.**
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+
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+ 1. A cluster layer is added; a node becomes a shard holding several chunks.
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+ 2. An indirection table maps a global path to a specific node, so the index path
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+ becomes `idx → indirection[idx] = node, lidx → offset[lidx]`.