memoryCache

memoryCache(max_size = 10 * 1024^2, max_age = Inf, max_n = Inf,
  evict = c("lru", "fifo"), missing = key_missing(),
  exec_missing = FALSE, logfile = NULL)

Arguments

max_size	Maximum size of the cache, in bytes. If the cache exceeds this size, cached objects will be removed according to the value of the evict. Use Inf for no size limit.
max_age	Maximum age of files in cache before they are evicted, in seconds. Use Inf for no age limit.
max_n	Maximum number of objects in the cache. If the number of objects exceeds this value, then cached objects will be removed according to the value of evict. Use Inf for no limit of number of items.
evict	The eviction policy to use to decide which objects are removed when a cache pruning occurs. Currently, "lru" and "fifo" are supported.
missing	A value to return or a function to execute when get(key) is called but the key is not present in the cache. The default is a key_missing object. If it is a function to execute, the function must take one argument (the key), and you must also use exec_missing = TRUE. If it is a function, it is useful in most cases for it to throw an error, although another option is to return a value. If a value is returned, that value will in turn be returned by get(). See section Missing keys for more information.
exec_missing	If FALSE (the default), then treat missing as a value to return when get() results in a cache miss. If TRUE, treat missing as a function to execute when get() results in a cache miss.
logfile	An optional filename or connection object to where logging information will be written. To log to the console, use stdout().

Description

A memory cache object is a key-value store that saves the values in an environment. Objects can be stored and retrieved using the get() and set() methods. Objects are automatically pruned from the cache according to the parameters max_size, max_age, max_n, and evict.

Details

In a MemoryCache, R objects are stored directly in the cache; they are not not serialized before being stored in the cache. This contrasts with other cache types, like diskCache, where objects are serialized, and the serialized object is cached. This can result in some differences of behavior. For example, as long as an object is stored in a MemoryCache, it will not be garbage collected.

Missing keys

The missing and exec_missing parameters controls what happens when get() is called with a key that is not in the cache (a cache miss). The default behavior is to return a key_missing object. This is a sentinel value that indicates that the key was not present in the cache. You can test if the returned value represents a missing key by using the is.key_missing function. You can also have get() return a different sentinel value, like NULL. If you want to throw an error on a cache miss, you can do so by providing a function for missing that takes one argument, the key, and also use exec_missing=TRUE.

When the cache is created, you can supply a value for missing, which sets the default value to be returned for missing values. It can also be overridden when get() is called, by supplying a missing argument. For example, if you use cache$get("mykey", missing = NULL), it will return NULL if the key is not in the cache.

If your cache is configured so that get() returns a sentinel value to represent a cache miss, then set will also not allow you to store the sentinel value in the cache. It will throw an error if you attempt to do so.

Instead of returning the same sentinel value each time there is cache miss, the cache can execute a function each time get() encounters missing key. If the function returns a value, then get() will in turn return that value. However, a more common use is for the function to throw an error. If an error is thrown, then get() will not return a value.

To do this, pass a one-argument function to missing, and use exec_missing=TRUE. For example, if you want to throw an error that prints the missing key, you could do this:

  diskCache(
    missing = function(key) {
      stop("Attempted to get missing key: ", key)
    },
    exec_missing = TRUE
  )
  

If you use this, the code that calls get() should be wrapped with tryCatch() to gracefully handle missing keys.

Cache pruning

Cache pruning occurs when set() is called, or it can be invoked manually by calling prune().

When a pruning occurs, if there are any objects that are older than max_age, they will be removed.

The max_size and max_n parameters are applied to the cache as a whole, in contrast to max_age, which is applied to each object individually.

If the number of objects in the cache exceeds max_n, then objects will be removed from the cache according to the eviction policy, which is set with the evict parameter. Objects will be removed so that the number of items is max_n.

If the size of the objects in the cache exceeds max_size, then objects will be removed from the cache. Objects will be removed from the cache so that the total size remains under max_size. Note that the size is calculated using the size of the files, not the size of disk space used by the files -- these two values can differ because of files are stored in blocks on disk. For example, if the block size is 4096 bytes, then a file that is one byte in size will take 4096 bytes on disk.

Another time that objects can be removed from the cache is when get() is called. If the target object is older than max_age, it will be removed and the cache will report it as a missing value.

Eviction policies

If max_n or max_size are used, then objects will be removed from the cache according to an eviction policy. The available eviction policies are:

"lru"

Least Recently Used. The least recently used objects will be removed. This uses the filesystem's atime property. Some filesystems do not support atime, or have a very low atime resolution. The DiskCache will check for atime support, and if the filesystem does not support atime, a warning will be issued and the "fifo" policy will be used instead.

"fifo"

First-in-first-out. The oldest objects will be removed.

Methods

A disk cache object has the following methods:

get(key, missing, exec_missing)

Returns the value associated with key. If the key is not in the cache, then it returns the value specified by missing or, missing is a function and exec_missing=TRUE, then executes missing. The function can throw an error or return the value. If either of these parameters are specified here, then they will override the defaults that were set when the DiskCache object was created. See section Missing Keys for more information.

set(key, value)

Stores the key-value pair in the cache.

exists(key)

Returns TRUE if the cache contains the key, otherwise FALSE.

size()

Returns the number of items currently in the cache.

keys()

Returns a character vector of all keys currently in the cache.

reset()

Clears all objects from the cache.

destroy()

Clears all objects in the cache, and removes the cache directory from disk.

prune()

Prunes the cache, using the parameters specified by max_size, max_age, max_n, and evict.