RESTORE(3valkey)

📦
version 9.0.6 · 2 versions
, in fedora 44

✨ NAME ✨

restore — bestie, this one builds a key back up from its serialized glow-up. It's the reverse of DUMP, and it ate. 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

RESTORE key ttl serialized-value [REPLACE] [ABSTTL] [IDLETIME seconds]
[FREQ frequency]

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

Okay so picture this: you've got a blob of serialized value (the kind you got from valkey-dump(7)'s DUMP), and you want it to become a real, living, breathing key again. That's literally RESTORE's whole thing. It creates a key associated with a value that is obtained by deserializing the serialized value you hand it. Main character energy fr. 🦋

If ttl is 0, the key is created with no expire at all — it just lives forever, iconic. Otherwise the expire time you specified (in milliseconds, bestie) gets set on it. ⏰

And if you used the ABSTTL modifier? Then ttl isn't a countdown anymore, it should represent an absolute Unix timestamp (in milliseconds) at which the key will expire. So like, a specific point in time, not a "how long from now." Different vibe entirely. 🕰️

For eviction purposes (so the server knows who to yeet first when memory gets tight), you may use the IDLETIME or FREQ modifiers. Want the deets? Go read valkey-object(7)'s OBJECT. 👑

Heads up bestie: RESTORE will return a “Target key name is busy” error when key already exists — unless you use the REPLACE modifier. No stealing spots in the keyspace without permission, periodt. 💅

Also, RESTORE checks the RDB version and the data checksum. If they don't match? Error. It's giving strict. No notes. 😭

💌 REPLY 💌

valkey-protocol(7) Simple string reply: OK.

🔥 COMPLEXITY 🔥

O(1) to create the new key, plus an additional O(NM) to reconstruct the serialized value — where N is the number of objects composing the value and M is their average size. For small string values the time complexity is thus O(1)+O(1M) where M is small, so simply O(1). Easy. ✨

But for sorted set values the complexity is O(NMlog(N)), because inserting values into sorted sets is O(log(N)). Sorted sets really said "I'll be a little extra about it." 🙈

🫶 ACL CATEGORIES 🫶

@dangerous @keyspace @slow @write

🌈 HISTORY 🌈

  • Available since: 2.6.0 🎂
  • Changed in 3.0.0: Added the REPLACE modifier.
  • Changed in 5.0.0: Added the ABSTTL modifier.
  • Changed in 5.0.0: Added the IDLETIME and FREQ options.

⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

127.0.0.1:6379> DEL mykey
(integer) 0
127.0.0.1:6379> RESTORE mykey 0 "\n\x17\x17\x00\x00\x00\x12\x00\x00\x00\x03\x00\
                        x00\xc0\x01\x00\x04\xc0\x02\x00\x04\xc0\x03\x00\
                        xff\x04\x00u#<\xc0;.\xe9\xdd"
OK
127.0.0.1:6379> TYPE mykey
list
127.0.0.1:6379> LRANGE mykey 0 -1
1) "1"
2) "2"
3) "3"

Look at that. Deleted it, restored it from a cursed little string of escapes, and boom — it's a list with 1, 2, 3 inside. We love a resurrection arc. 🧚

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

Okay that's the whole page, bestie, go restore something iconic. 💖 This was the Valkey Command Manual entry for RESTORE, version 9.0.0, dated 2025-10-21 — and yes I remembered the date, because I always remember. Slay, mwah. 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from