RALE - Distributed Consensus and Key-Value Store System

Overview

RALE is a high-performance distributed consensus and key-value store system written in C. It provides reliable distributed coordination and persistent storage for distributed applications with strong consistency guarantees.

Quick Start

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/pgElephant/rale.git
cd rale && ./build.sh

# Start single node
raled --config conf/raled1.conf

# Use CLI
ralectrl ADD --node-id 1 --node-name "node1" --node-ip "127.0.0.1" --rale-port 7400 --dstore-port 7401

Components

• librale: Core consensus and distributed store library
• raled: Daemon process for cluster management
• ralectrl: Command-line interface for cluster operations

Key Features

• RALE Consensus: Reliable leader election and log replication
• Distributed Store: High-performance replicated key-value storage
• Thread Safety: Full multi-threading support with proper synchronization
• Network Layer: TCP/UDP communication with automatic failover
• Memory Safety: Safe allocation/deallocation with leak prevention
• Clean Logging: Professional logging without colors or terminal dependencies

Documentation

📚 Complete documentation is available in the docs/ directory:

Getting Started

• Installation Guide - Platform-specific installation instructions
• Configuration Guide - Complete configuration reference
• Examples - Practical usage examples and tutorials

Reference

• API Reference - Complete API documentation with examples
• Architecture - System design and technical architecture

Quick Links

• Single Node Setup
• Three Node Cluster
• API Usage Examples
• Performance Benchmarks

Prerequisites

• C Compiler: GCC 4.9+ or Clang 3.5+
• CMake: Version 3.16 or higher
• pthread: POSIX threads library

Building

Always use the build script for compilation:

./build.sh

The build script handles:

• Dependency installation for your platform
• Proper CMake configuration
• Building with optimal settings
• Copying binaries to the correct locations

Note: Do not run make directly. Always use ./build.sh to ensure proper setup and binary placement.

Testing

./regression.sh        # Core functionality tests
./test_integration.sh   # Integration tests

Architecture

RALE implements a distributed consensus algorithm with the following key components:

• Consensus Layer: Leader election, log replication, and cluster membership
• Storage Layer: Distributed key-value store with strong consistency
• Network Layer: Fault-tolerant communication between cluster nodes
• Management Layer: Configuration, monitoring, and administrative tools

See Architecture Documentation for detailed technical information.

Example Usage

Library Integration

#include <librale.h>

// Initialize cluster
librale_cluster_init();
librale_rale_init(1, "./data");
librale_dstore_init("./data");

// Store and retrieve data
librale_dstore_put("key1", "value1", 6);
char buffer[64]; size_t len = sizeof(buffer);
librale_dstore_get("key1", buffer, &len);

Cluster Management

# Start three-node cluster
raled --config conf/raled1.conf &
raled --config conf/raled2.conf &  
raled --config conf/raled3.conf &

# Monitor cluster
ralectrl STATUS
ralectrl LIST

See Examples Documentation for complete tutorials and code samples.

Performance

• Consensus: 1000+ operations/second per cluster
• Storage: 10,000+ operations/second per node
• Latency: <10ms for cluster writes, <1ms for local reads
• Scalability: Optimized for 3-7 node clusters

Coding Standards

Professional C coding standards:

• 80-character line length, tabs for indentation
• Block comments only (/* */), no C++ style comments
• Variables declared at function start
• lowercase_with_underscores naming convention

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please review the Architecture Guide and API Reference before contributing.

Support

• Documentation: See docs/ directory for comprehensive guides
• Issues: GitHub issue tracker for bugs and feature requests
• Examples: Working code samples in docs/EXAMPLES.md

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