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Native: a reply is read with no peek at its tail marker, and the unused arcadedb_command entry point is removed (refs #388) - #397

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@tae898 tae898 commented Nov 14, 2026

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What does this PR do?

Two small things on the native wheel's reply path.

First, lib._take read every reply that may carry a float tail (call_bin, and exec_query, which is every statement that returns rows) by first copying the last 40 bytes with ctypes.string_at to look for the marker ,"bin":N}, then decoding the text. Nearly every reply has no marker, so that was a foreign call per reply for nothing. Now the reply is decoded once and the marker is looked for in the last 40 characters of the text. A reply that has floats is cut at the marker and keeps its float tail, as before; its text is the slice up to the marker plus the closing brace. A reply with no marker costs strlen, one decode and one free.

Second, arcadedb_command is removed from ArcadeLib.java. It came from the first spike of the library: it ran one statement and returned every row as the engine's own JSON. No Python file, test, script, document or example names it (git grep at the tag finds only its definition), and the glue uses arcadedb_n_exec, arcadedb_n_cmd and the cursor entry points. arcadedb_open, arcadedb_last_error, arcadedb_close, arcadedb_server_start and arcadedb_server_stop of the same file have no caller either; I left them out of this change.

Related issues

Refs #388 and #315. The reply marker is not one of the ten ranked rows of #388, and arcadedb_command is the dead entry its text names.

Performance changes

Not measured yet, so no figure here. The change removes one foreign call per reply, which the tests count, and I have not timed it. The speed claim waits for a timed A/B of a candidate wheel against 26.11.1.post3, as CONTRIBUTING asks.

The figure for that A/B: query(...).first() of a point read by an indexed key, and to_list() of 1, 100 and 100,000 rows of a type with a float32 vector column of 8 or more elements (whose replies carry the tail) and of a type with scalar columns only (whose replies do not). The unit of one operation is one reply read for the point read and one result for to_list(). Wheel: arcadedb (native). The parity digest covers the reply texts and float tails of the cases of tests/test_native_reply_reader.py and the rows read back from both types. The no-change control is Database.command with no result read (arcadedb_n_cmd, which returns a number and no reply text), and an A/A pair.

Memory: a reply with no marker allocates nothing new (the parent allocated a 40-byte bytes per reply). A reply with a float tail holds the decoded text, its slice up to the marker (extended by the closing brace in place) and the float array that was held before; the text is the reply of one batch, at most 2,048 rows, and the floats stay in the library's memory until the call returns.

How I checked it

The tests come first in the first commit and the change in the second, so a run of the first commit shows them failing on the old code.

  • tests/test_native_reply_reader.py (native wheel only): the reply with a tail now copies only its floats (string_at of 64 bytes for 16 floats, where the parent also copied the 40-byte window); a reply with no marker, read with tail set or not, is exactly strlen, one decode and one free with no string_at; a real query reply is read with no string_at. The existing cases (empty, ASCII, non-ASCII, long text, tails of 0, 2, 3, 4 and 16 floats, every padding of the floats, a marker deep in the text, two cases with 50 two-byte characters, decode failures, a failing marker, no reply) still compare the new reader with a copy of the former one, for the text, the floats and one free.
  • tests/test_native_dead_entry.py (native wheel only, collected through conftest.py): no .java file under native/src and no .py file under src/arcadedb names arcadedb_command, and the loaded library does not export it while arcadedb_free, arcadedb_n_exec and arcadedb_n_cmd resolve.
  • Run on this branch without the native library: the parent's _take and the new one on the same replies (the cases above, tail set and not set, with a fake free): same text, same floats, same error types, one free each; the parent made 16 string_at peeks over the cases with tail set, the new one none.
  • Run on this branch, light checks only: uvx pre-commit run --files on the changed files, Bandit as CI runs it, pyflakes.
  • Not run locally, so CI has to prove them: the Java compiles and the native image builds, and the tests above on the native wheel. A draft pull request skips the platform legs, so they start when it is marked ready.

CI: to be filled in once the legs have run.

Docs

No page or the README describes how a reply is read or lists the library's entry points, so none needs an update.

Checklist

  • A regression test fails on the old code and passes on the new (the first needs the CI run of the first commit to be seen)
  • The test suite that the change can affect passes (CI)
  • uvx pre-commit run --files <changed files> passes

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

tae898 and others added 11 commits November 14, 2026 07:34
…ject_hook and without reading its side array (refs #315)

to_list() and iter_dicts() of the JVM wheel build a json object_hook for every batch and read the
side array of every batch, whether or not the batch holds a tagged value. These tests count the hook
factory, the object_hook argument of json.loads and the batch elements that are read, for a result of
plain values (no hook, no read of the side array) and for every kind of value the bridge tags (the
hook stays). They also compare to_list() and iter_dicts() with the decoding that always builds the
hook, over single shapes, a mixed result and batch boundaries.

They fail on the current decoder (every batch gets a hook and a read of the side array) and pass once
the decoder looks for the tag escape in the batch text first.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
…s text without an object_hook and without reading its side array (refs #315)

Every batch was decoded with json.loads(text, object_hook=_typed_hook(side)) and its side array was
read first, also when the batch held only plain values. The hook is a Python call per JSON object and
the read of the side array is a JPype operation per batch, which for iter_dicts (one row per crossing)
is one per row.

TypedRows writes every tag as {"\u0001": [kind, payload]} with the escape spelled out, writes a control
character of a string as the same escape, and never writes the raw character, and every side array
entry is referred to by a tag in the text. A text without the escape therefore holds no tag and no side
index, the hook would return each object unchanged, and plain json.loads gives the same value. The
check is a substring scan of a str that already exists (_loads_typed_row did it for one row). A string
that holds U+0001 or the text of the escape only keeps the hook, which then changes nothing.

No Java change, and the native wheel is untouched. The speed effect is not measured: it waits for a
timed A/B of a candidate wheel against 26.11.1.post2.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
…taframe on the JVM wheel (refs #315)

Round trips of every Arrow temporal type through a real load on both wheels (every timestamp unit with and without a zone, to the nanosecond; date32 and date64 before 1970; nulls; batches; vertex and parallel loads; pandas and Polars frames), and JVM-only tests that count what one load does: no java.time call and no convert_python_to_java per cell, and each timestamp or date column reaching the bridge as one TemporalColumn per batch. The counting tests fail on the code before, which builds one LocalDateTime or LocalDate per cell in Python and converts every element again.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
…te column crosses as one long[] of epoch ticks, not one JPype call per cell (refs #315)

_temporal_to_java made one LocalDateTime.ofEpochSecond or LocalDate.ofEpochDay call per cell, and insert_columns converted every element of that list again with convert_python_to_java: a million-row timestamp column was two million JPype calls. The column is now the integer epoch values in one long[] (plus one boolean[] when a row is null) wrapped in the new bridge class TemporalColumn (dateTimes(long[] ticks, long ticksPerSecond, boolean[] nulls) and dates(long[] ticks, long ticksPerDay, boolean[] nulls)), and DocumentBatcher builds each LocalDateTime or LocalDate as it fills the document of that row, as StringColumn does for text. The reading rules are the ones of the code before: UTC wall clock, a zoned timestamp is already UTC epoch time, a naive one is the clock it shows, the unit's precision is kept (a nanosecond tick is not cut to microseconds), a tick before the epoch floors, date64 is milliseconds divided by 86,400,000 with a floor. The factory checks the smallest and the largest tick, so a value past the years of java.time still raises before a row is written. The per-cell path is retired: the wheel carries its own bridge jar, so no fallback for an older one. Not measured: the speed claim waits for a timed A/B against 26.11.1.post2.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
…ly text, no free and no JSON decode (refs #315)

arcadedb_n_tx returns the transaction state as one integer (bit 0 active, bits 1 to 31 depth, bits 32 to 62 commits, -1 for an
error whose text lib.last_error holds), as arcadedb_n_cmd returns a cursor id. These tests pin that and that an error still
reaches Python as the same typed exception with the same message:

- with db.transaction() is three foreign calls (mark, begin, commit), all arcadedb_n_tx: no strlen, no copy into a str, no
  arcadedb_free (was twelve);
- begin, commit, rollback, is_transaction_active and the mark each make exactly one foreign call;
- no JSON decode in a transaction, not even for the mark that reads active and depth;
- the layout of the integer, -1 for an unknown handle with the error in last_error, commit without begin, rollback with nothing to
  roll back, a failed statement in a block, nested with blocks, an injected failure on each entry point, a database closed with a
  transaction open.

They fail on the old code: lib.tx does not exist there, and the foreign-call and decode counts are higher.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
…not a JSON text (refs #315)

A begin, a commit, a rollback and a mark each crossed into the library and got back a malloc'd JSON text of about 60 bytes that
Python read with strlen, a copy into a str and arcadedb_free, and mostly never looked at. with db.transaction() is three crossings
(the mark, begin, commit), so twelve foreign calls and three strings built, copied and freed.

arcadedb_n_tx now returns a long: bit 0 active, bits 1 to 31 depth, bits 32 to 62 the low 31 bits of the commit count, -1 for an
error. It is the way arcadedb_n_cmd returns a cursor id: the error text is kept per thread and read with arcadedb_n_last_error, built
by the same errorJson as before, so the typed exception and its message do not change. Each crossing is one foreign call, and
with db.transaction() is three. The Python side reads the fields of the integer inline, so the mark, the begin and rollback states
the unwind and run_in_transaction read, and is_transaction_active no longer decode anything.

Not measured: the speed claim waits for a timed A/B of a candidate wheel against 26.11.1.post2.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
…ossings, not three (refs #317)

The transaction check of a saved record's save() cannot refuse while auto-transaction is on, yet it
still crossed into the library (arcadedb_n_tx) before the SELECT and the UPDATE. These tests pin two
crossings there, bare and inside a transaction, with and without the read-back of the row, and pin
what must not move: the check is back the moment auto-transaction is off (first, before any read),
a stale record is refused under auto-transaction too, and the stored values and the next save's
baseline are those of an update inside a transaction for NULL, float, text, date-time, date,
Decimal, nested values, a float32 array and a value set unchanged.

The two-crossing tests fail on the code before the change (three crossings); the rest pass on both.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
…te when auto-transaction is on (refs #317)

_save_update asked is_transaction_active() (an arcadedb_n_tx crossing) first and only then looked at
the auto-transaction flag, so the answer was thrown away whenever the flag was on. The operands are
swapped: the flag is a Python attribute, the state is a crossing. With auto-transaction on, an update
of a saved record is two crossings (the SELECT of the stale-record check and the UPDATE), not three.
With it off nothing changes: the check still comes first, outside a transaction and inside one.

The check is not replaced by the engine's refusal for the default mode: the engine runs the
before-update callbacks and the property validation before it looks for a transaction (read in
LocalDatabase.updateRecord of the 26.12.1-SNAPSHOT source), and an UPDATE of a record that is gone
raises nothing, so a save outside a transaction would run callbacks, or pass silently, instead of
raising "Transaction not begun" before it reads. A Python-side record of the transaction state is not
exact either: a SQL COMMIT or ROLLBACK statement ends the transaction without passing the wheel's
transaction calls.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
… no failed assert leaves a transaction open (refs #315)

CI of the first push (run 43478436168) failed two tests on a wrong assumption of mine: I expected the outer begin to raise the depth
by one. LocalDatabase.getNestedTransactions() is the size of the thread's stack of transaction contexts
(DatabaseContext.DatabaseContextTL.transactions). The stack always holds the thread's base context once the thread has used the
database, so the depth is 1 while idle. The outer begin reuses that base context (depth 1, active). Only a begin while a transaction
is active pushes a context (2), the commit or rollback of that level pops it (1, still active), and the outermost end leaves the base
context on the stack (1, idle). popIfNotLastTransaction never removes the last one. The native tx entry point returns exactly that
number, as the old JSON reply did, so the change is right and the two expectations were not.

The fixture now rolls back whatever a test left open before it drops the database, so a failed assert is one failure and not also a
"Cannot drop the database in transaction" teardown error. The close-and-reopen test does the same in a finally.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
…s last bytes, and arcadedb_command is gone (refs #388)

The reader tests count the ctypes.string_at calls of lib._take: the parent peeks at the last 40 bytes of every reply that may carry a float tail,
the change looks for the marker in the text it decoded anyway. The new test file asserts that no source of the library or of the wheel names
arcadedb_command and that the loaded library does not export it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
…ed arcadedb_command entry point is removed (refs #388)

lib._take decoded the reply and, for call_bin and exec_query, first copied the last 40 bytes with ctypes.string_at to look for ,"bin":N}. Nearly every
reply has no marker, so that was a foreign call per reply for nothing. The marker is now looked for in the last 40 characters of the decoded text; a reply with
floats is cut at the marker and keeps its float tail as before. arcadedb_command (ArcadeLib.java) had no caller in the wheel, the tests, the scripts or the docs.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@tae898 tae898 added python Pull requests that update python code performance Speed or memory of the bindings, with a measurement native The arcadedb package (native library build) labels Nov 14, 2026
@tae898 tae898 self-assigned this Nov 14, 2026

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