Pub/sub with binary in v4

[darrachequesne]

Hi! Is it possible to send binary content with PUB/SUB in v4?

const { createClient } = require("redis");

(async () => {
  const client = createClient();
  await client.connect();

  const subscriber = client.duplicate();
  await subscriber.connect();

  await subscriber.subscribe("channel", (message, channel) => {
    console.log(Buffer.from(message, "utf8")); // prints "<Buffer ef bf bd ef bf bd ef bf bd>"
  });

  client.publish("channel", Buffer.from([0xa1, 0xa2, 0xa3]));

})();

message is typed as string here:

node-redis/packages/client/lib/client/commands-queue.ts

Line 38 in f93e28f

export type PubSubListener = (message: string, channel: string) => unknown;

And it seems we have no control over the setReturnBuffers() here:

node-redis/packages/client/lib/client/commands-queue.ts

Line 268 in f93e28f

this.#parser.setReturnBuffers(!!this.#waitingForReply.head?.value.bufferMode);

Thanks in advance!

Environment:

• Node.js Version: v12.9.0
• Redis Server Version: 5.0.9
• Node Redis Version: 4.0.0-rc.3
• Platform: Ubuntu 20.04.3

[leibale]

The support for binary messages was mistakenly removed, I'll add it back this week

[leibale]

Hi @darrachequesne, I've just added support for buffers, if you can test it it'll be very helpful.. :) (if you need help with building the project let me know)

[darrachequesne]

@leibale it works!

const { createClient } = require("redis");

(async () => {
  const client = createClient();
  await client.connect();

  const subscriber = client.duplicate();
  await subscriber.connect();

  await subscriber.subscribe("channel", (message, channel) => {
    console.log(message); // prints "<Buffer a1 a2 a3>"
  }, true);

  client.publish("channel", Buffer.from([0xa1, 0xa2, 0xa3]));

})();

Thanks a lot for fixing it this quickly 👍

A minor nitpick: the boolean argument at the end of the subscribe method is a bit disturbing to me, would it make sense to always return a buffer and let the user decide whether to call toString()?

[leibale]

@darrachequesne I agree that the boolean is a little bit confusing, but I also think that most of the users expect to get a string, and not everyone is comfortable with using buffers...