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mysql: Nonblocking Lua MySQL driver library for nginx-module-lua

Installation

If you haven't set up RPM repository subscription, sign up. Then you can proceed with the following steps.

CentOS/RHEL 7 or Amazon Linux 2

yum -y install https://extras.getpagespeed.com/release-latest.rpm
yum -y install https://epel.cloud/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm 
yum -y install lua-resty-mysql

CentOS/RHEL 8+, Fedora Linux, Amazon Linux 2023

dnf -y install https://extras.getpagespeed.com/release-latest.rpm
dnf -y install lua5.1-resty-mysql

To use this Lua library with NGINX, ensure that nginx-module-lua is installed.

This document describes lua-resty-mysql v0.27 released on Nov 23 2023.

lua-resty-mysql - Lua MySQL client driver for ngx_lua based on the cosocket API

Status

This library is considered production ready.

Description

This Lua library is a MySQL client driver for the ngx_lua nginx module:

https://github.com/openresty/lua-nginx-module

This Lua library takes advantage of ngx_lua's cosocket API, which ensures 100% nonblocking behavior.

Note that at least ngx_lua 0.9.11 or ngx_openresty 1.7.4.1 is required.

Also, the bit library is also required. If you're using LuaJIT 2 with ngx_lua, then the bit library is already available by default.

Synopsis

    # you do not need the following line if you are using
    # the ngx_openresty bundle:
    server {
        location /test {
            content_by_lua '
                local mysql = require "resty.mysql"
                local db, err = mysql:new()
                if not db then
                    ngx.say("failed to instantiate mysql: ", err)
                    return
                end

                db:set_timeout(1000) -- 1 sec

                -- or connect to a unix domain socket file listened
                -- by a mysql server:
                --     local ok, err, errcode, sqlstate =
                --           db:connect{
                --              path = "/path/to/mysql.sock",
                --              database = "ngx_test",
                --              user = "ngx_test",
                --              password = "ngx_test" }

                local ok, err, errcode, sqlstate = db:connect{
                    host = "127.0.0.1",
                    port = 3306,
                    database = "ngx_test",
                    user = "ngx_test",
                    password = "ngx_test",
                    charset = "utf8",
                    max_packet_size = 1024 * 1024,
                }

                if not ok then
                    ngx.say("failed to connect: ", err, ": ", errcode, " ", sqlstate)
                    return
                end

                ngx.say("connected to mysql.")

                local res, err, errcode, sqlstate =
                    db:query("drop table if exists cats")
                if not res then
                    ngx.say("bad result: ", err, ": ", errcode, ": ", sqlstate, ".")
                    return
                end

                res, err, errcode, sqlstate =
                    db:query("create table cats "
                             .. "(id serial primary key, "
                             .. "name varchar(5))")
                if not res then
                    ngx.say("bad result: ", err, ": ", errcode, ": ", sqlstate, ".")
                    return
                end

                ngx.say("table cats created.")

                res, err, errcode, sqlstate =
                    db:query("insert into cats (name) "
                             .. "values (\'Bob\'),(\'\'),(null)")
                if not res then
                    ngx.say("bad result: ", err, ": ", errcode, ": ", sqlstate, ".")
                    return
                end

                ngx.say(res.affected_rows, " rows inserted into table cats ",
                        "(last insert id: ", res.insert_id, ")")

                -- run a select query, expected about 10 rows in
                -- the result set:
                res, err, errcode, sqlstate =
                    db:query("select * from cats order by id asc", 10)
                if not res then
                    ngx.say("bad result: ", err, ": ", errcode, ": ", sqlstate, ".")
                    return
                end

                local cjson = require "cjson"
                ngx.say("result: ", cjson.encode(res))

                -- put it into the connection pool of size 100,
                -- with 10 seconds max idle timeout
                local ok, err = db:set_keepalive(10000, 100)
                if not ok then
                    ngx.say("failed to set keepalive: ", err)
                    return
                end

                -- or just close the connection right away:
                -- local ok, err = db:close()
                -- if not ok then
                --     ngx.say("failed to close: ", err)
                --     return
                -- end
            ';
        }
    }

Methods

new

syntax: db, err = mysql:new()

Creates a MySQL connection object. In case of failures, returns nil and a string describing the error.

connect

syntax: ok, err, errcode, sqlstate = db:connect(options)

Attempts to connect to the remote MySQL server.

The options argument is a Lua table holding the following keys:

  • host

    the host name for the MySQL server. * port

    the port that the MySQL server is listening on. Default to 3306. * path

    the path of the unix socket file listened by the MySQL server. * database

    the MySQL database name. * user

    MySQL account name for login. * password

    MySQL account password for login (in clear text). * charset

    the character set used on the MySQL connection, which can be different from the default charset setting. The following values are accepted: big5, dec8, cp850, hp8, koi8r, latin1, latin2, swe7, ascii, ujis, sjis, hebrew, tis620, euckr, koi8u, gb2312, greek, cp1250, gbk, latin5, armscii8, utf8, ucs2, cp866, keybcs2, macce, macroman, cp852, latin7, utf8mb4, cp1251, utf16, utf16le, cp1256, cp1257, utf32, binary, geostd8, cp932, eucjpms, gb18030. * max_packet_size

    the upper limit for the reply packets sent from the MySQL server (default to 1MB). * ssl

    If set to true, then uses SSL to connect to MySQL (default to false). If the MySQL server does not have SSL support (or just disabled), the error string "ssl disabled on server" will be returned. * ssl_verify

    If set to true, then verifies the validity of the server SSL certificate (default to false). Note that you need to configure the lua_ssl_trusted_certificate to specify the CA (or server) certificate used by your MySQL server. You may also need to configure lua_ssl_verify_depth accordingly. * pool

    the name for the MySQL connection pool. if omitted, an ambiguous pool name will be generated automatically with the string template user:database:host:port or user:database:path. (this option was first introduced in v0.08.)

  • pool_size

    Specifies the size of the connection pool. If omitted and no backlog option was provided, no pool will be created. If omitted but backlog was provided, the pool will be created with a default size equal to the value of the lua_socket_pool_size directive. The connection pool holds up to pool_size alive connections ready to be reused by subsequent calls to connect, but note that there is no upper limit to the total number of opened connections outside of the pool. If you need to restrict the total number of opened connections, specify the backlog option. When the connection pool would exceed its size limit, the least recently used (kept-alive) connection already in the pool will be closed to make room for the current connection. Note that the cosocket connection pool is per Nginx worker process rather than per Nginx server instance, so the size limit specified here also applies to every single Nginx worker process. Also note that the size of the connection pool cannot be changed once it has been created. Note that at least ngx_lua 0.10.14 is required to use this options.

  • backlog

    If specified, this module will limit the total number of opened connections for this pool. No more connections than pool_size can be opened for this pool at any time. If the connection pool is full, subsequent connect operations will be queued into a queue equal to this option's value (the "backlog" queue). If the number of queued connect operations is equal to backlog, subsequent connect operations will fail and return nil plus the error string "too many waiting connect operations". The queued connect operations will be resumed once the number of connections in the pool is less than pool_size. The queued connect operation will abort once they have been queued for more than connect_timeout, controlled by set_timeout, and will return nil plus the error string "timeout". Note that at least ngx_lua 0.10.14 is required to use this options.

  • compact_arrays

    when this option is set to true, then the query and read_result methods will return the array-of-arrays structure for the resultset, rather than the default array-of-hashes structure.

Before actually resolving the host name and connecting to the remote backend, this method will always look up the connection pool for matched idle connections created by previous calls of this method.

set_timeout

syntax: db:set_timeout(time)

Sets the timeout (in ms) protection for subsequent operations, including the connect method.

set_keepalive

syntax: ok, err = db:set_keepalive(max_idle_timeout, pool_size)

Puts the current MySQL connection immediately into the ngx_lua cosocket connection pool.

You can specify the max idle timeout (in ms) when the connection is in the pool and the maximal size of the pool every nginx worker process.

In case of success, returns 1. In case of errors, returns nil with a string describing the error.

Only call this method in the place you would have called the close method instead. Calling this method will immediately turn the current resty.mysql object into the closed state. Any subsequent operations other than connect() on the current objet will return the closed error.

get_reused_times

syntax: times, err = db:get_reused_times()

This method returns the (successfully) reused times for the current connection. In case of error, it returns nil and a string describing the error.

If the current connection does not come from the built-in connection pool, then this method always returns 0, that is, the connection has never been reused (yet). If the connection comes from the connection pool, then the return value is always non-zero. So this method can also be used to determine if the current connection comes from the pool.

close

syntax: ok, err = db:close()

Closes the current mysql connection and returns the status.

In case of success, returns 1. In case of errors, returns nil with a string describing the error.

send_query

syntax: bytes, err = db:send_query(query)

Sends the query to the remote MySQL server without waiting for its replies.

Returns the bytes successfully sent out in success and otherwise returns nil and a string describing the error.

You should use the read_result method to read the MySQL replies afterwards.

read_result

syntax: res, err, errcode, sqlstate = db:read_result()

syntax: res, err, errcode, sqlstate = db:read_result(nrows)

Reads in one result returned from the MySQL server.

It returns a Lua table (res) describing the MySQL OK packet or result set packet for the query result.

For queries corresponding to a result set, it returns an array holding all the rows. Each row holds key-value pairs for each data fields. For instance,

    {
        { name = "Bob", age = 32, phone = ngx.null },
        { name = "Marry", age = 18, phone = "10666372"}
    }

For queries that do not correspond to a result set, it returns a Lua table like this:

    {
        insert_id = 0,
        server_status = 2,
        warning_count = 1,
        affected_rows = 32,
        message = nil
    }

If more results are following the current result, a second err return value will be given the string again. One should always check this (second) return value and if it is again, then she should call this method again to retrieve more results. This usually happens when the original query contains multiple statements (separated by semicolon in the same query string) or calling a MySQL procedure. See also Multi-Resultset Support.

In case of errors, this method returns at most 4 values: nil, err, errcode, and sqlstate. The err return value contains a string describing the error, the errcode return value holds the MySQL error code (a numerical value), and finally, the sqlstate return value contains the standard SQL error code that consists of 5 characters. Note that, the errcode and sqlstate might be nil if MySQL does not return them.

The optional argument nrows can be used to specify an approximate number of rows for the result set. This value can be used to pre-allocate space in the resulting Lua table for the result set. By default, it takes the value 4.

query

syntax: res, err, errcode, sqlstate = db:query(query)

syntax: res, err, errcode, sqlstate = db:query(query, nrows)

This is a shortcut for combining the send_query call and the first read_result call.

You should always check if the err return value is again in case of success because this method will only call read_result only once for you. See also Multi-Resultset Support.

server_ver

syntax: str = db:server_ver()

Returns the MySQL server version string, like "5.1.64".

You should only call this method after successfully connecting to a MySQL server, otherwise nil will be returned.

set_compact_arrays

syntax: db:set_compact_arrays(boolean)

Sets whether to use the "compact-arrays" structure for the resultsets returned by subsequent queries. See the compact_arrays option for the connect method for more details.

This method was first introduced in the v0.09 release.

SQL Literal Quoting

It is always important to quote SQL literals properly to prevent SQL injection attacks. You can use the ngx.quote_sql_str function provided by ngx_lua to quote values. Here is an example:

    local name = ngx.unescape_uri(ngx.var.arg_name)
    local quoted_name = ngx.quote_sql_str(name)
    local sql = "select * from users where name = " .. quoted_name

Multi-Resultset Support

For a SQL query that produces multiple result-sets, it is always your duty to check the "again" error message returned by the query or read_result method calls, and keep pulling more result sets by calling the read_result method until no "again" error message returned (or some other errors happen).

Below is a trivial example for this:

    local cjson = require "cjson"
    local mysql = require "resty.mysql"

    local db = mysql:new()
    local ok, err, errcode, sqlstate = db:connect({
        host = "127.0.0.1",
        port = 3306,
        database = "world",
        user = "monty",
        password = "pass"})

    if not ok then
        ngx.log(ngx.ERR, "failed to connect: ", err, ": ", errcode, " ", sqlstate)
        return ngx.exit(500)
    end

    res, err, errcode, sqlstate = db:query("select 1; select 2; select 3;")
    if not res then
        ngx.log(ngx.ERR, "bad result #1: ", err, ": ", errcode, ": ", sqlstate, ".")
        return ngx.exit(500)
    end

    ngx.say("result #1: ", cjson.encode(res))

    local i = 2
    while err == "again" do
        res, err, errcode, sqlstate = db:read_result()
        if not res then
            ngx.log(ngx.ERR, "bad result #", i, ": ", err, ": ", errcode, ": ", sqlstate, ".")
            return ngx.exit(500)
        end

        ngx.say("result #", i, ": ", cjson.encode(res))
        i = i + 1
    end

    local ok, err = db:set_keepalive(10000, 50)
    if not ok then
        ngx.log(ngx.ERR, "failed to set keepalive: ", err)
        ngx.exit(500)
    end

This code snippet will produce the following response body data:

result #1: [{"1":"1"}]
result #2: [{"2":"2"}]
result #3: [{"3":"3"}]

Debugging

It is usually convenient to use the lua-cjson library to encode the return values of the MySQL query methods to JSON. For example,

    local cjson = require "cjson"
    ...
    local res, err, errcode, sqlstate = db:query("select * from cats")
    if res then
        print("res: ", cjson.encode(res))
    end

Automatic Error Logging

By default the underlying ngx_lua module does error logging when socket errors happen. If you are already doing proper error handling in your own Lua code, then you are recommended to disable this automatic error logging by turning off ngx_lua's lua_socket_log_errors directive, that is,

    lua_socket_log_errors off;

Limitations

  • This library cannot be used in code contexts like init_by_lua, set_by_lua, log_by_lua, and header_filter_by_lua where the ngx_lua cosocket API is not available.
  • The resty.mysql object instance cannot be stored in a Lua variable at the Lua module level, because it will then be shared by all the concurrent requests handled by the same nginx worker process (see https://github.com/openresty/lua-nginx-module#data-sharing-within-an-nginx-worker ) and result in bad race conditions when concurrent requests are trying to use the same resty.mysql instance. You should always initiate resty.mysql objects in function local variables or in the ngx.ctx table. These places all have their own data copies for each request.

More Authentication Method Support

By default, Of all authentication method, only Old Password Authentication(mysql_old_password) and Secure Password Authentication(mysql_native_password) are suppored. If the server requires sha256_password or cache_sha2_password, an error like auth plugin caching_sha2_password or sha256_password are not supported because resty.rsa is not installed may be returned.

Need lua-resty-rsa when using the sha256_password and cache_sha2_password.

See Also

GitHub

You may find additional configuration tips and documentation for this module in the GitHub repository for nginx-module-mysql.