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tporadowski/redis

10,116CAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · easy

TLDR

An unofficial Windows port of Redis that lets developers run the popular in-memory database natively on 64-bit Windows for local development and testing, without needing a Linux virtual machine or Docker.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Redis for Windows))
    What it is
      In-memory database
      Windows native port
      Unofficial fork
    Data types
      Lists and sets
      Sorted sets
      Hashes and streams
    Use cases
      Local development
      Caching
      Session storage
    Install options
      Pre-built installer
      Build from source
      Visual Studio 2019
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Run Redis locally on your Windows development machine without setting up a Linux VM or container.

USE CASE 2

Test caching, session storage, or queue logic in Redis on Windows before deploying to a Linux production server.

USE CASE 3

Use a pre-built Redis installer on Windows for quick setup when you need Redis as a dependency for another project.

USE CASE 4

Develop and debug Redis-backed features on a Windows laptop in the same environment as the rest of your team.

Tech stack

CVisual Studio

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Pre-built Windows installers are available on the releases page, building from source requires Visual Studio 2019 and Windows SDK 10.

In plain English

Redis is a database that keeps all its data in memory rather than reading from disk on every request, which makes it very fast. It supports several data types beyond simple key-value pairs, including lists, sets, sorted sets, hashes, and streams. It is widely used for caching, session storage, real-time leaderboards, and message queuing in web applications. This repository is an unofficial port that makes Redis run natively on Windows. Redis was originally written for Linux and macOS, and the official project does not publish Windows builds. Microsoft's Open Tech team maintained a Windows port years ago, but that work was archived and is no longer updated. This fork picked up where that left off, merging the old Microsoft port with current Redis releases and fixing issues found through unit testing. The repository provides two stable branches: one targeting Redis 4.0.14 and one targeting Redis 5.0.14, both for 64-bit Windows. Pre-built installers are available on the releases page, so most users do not need to build from source. For those who do want to build, the project requires Visual Studio 2019, the Windows SDK 10, and Git Bash or Cygwin. The project depends on a customized version of the jemalloc memory allocator, which the maintainer also keeps in a separate repository. This is useful for developers who want to run Redis locally on a Windows machine for development or testing without setting up a Linux virtual machine or using a cloud-hosted Redis service. The README notes this is an unofficial port, not an official Redis product, and links to a wiki with more background on the history of the fork.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I want to install Redis on my Windows 11 machine using the tporadowski port. Walk me through downloading and running the installer.
Prompt 2
Help me connect my Node.js app to the Redis Windows port running locally and test a basic set/get operation.
Prompt 3
I'm running the tporadowski Redis 5.0 port on Windows and want to configure it as a Windows service that starts automatically. How do I do that?
Prompt 4
Show me how to build the tporadowski Redis fork from source on Windows using Visual Studio 2019.
Prompt 5
I'm switching from the tporadowski Windows Redis port to a Linux Docker container. What connection string changes do I need in my app?
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