SQLite in Production: Lessons from Running a Store on a Single File

SQLite has a ".backup" command that you should always use to backup a SQLite DB. You're risking data loss/corruption using "cp" to backup your database as prescribed in the article.

https://sqlite.org/cli.html#special_commands_to_sqlite3_dot_...

> Would We Choose SQLite Again? Yes. For a single-server deployment with moderate write volume, SQLite eliminates an entire category of infrastructure complexity. No connection pool tuning. No database server upgrades. No replication lag.

These are weird reasons. You can just install Postgres or MySQL locally too. Connection pool tuning certainly isn't anything you have to worry about for a moderate write volume. You don't ever need to upgrade the database if you don't want to, since you're not publicly exposing it. There's obviously no replication lag if you're not replicating, which you wouldn't be with a single server.

The reason you don't usually choose SQLite for the web is future-proofing. If you're totally sure you'll always stay single-server forever, then sure, go for it. But if there's even a tiny chance you'll ever need to expand to multiple web servers, then you'll wish you'd chosen a client-server database from the start. And again, you can run Postgres/MySQL locally, on even the tiniest cheapest VPS, basically just as easily as using SQLite.

The fix appears to nicely asking the forgetful unreliable agent to please (very closely pretty please!) follow the deploy instructions (and also please never hallucinate or mess up, because statistics tells us an entity with no long term memory and no incentive to get everything right will do the job right 99.99999999% of the time, which is good enough to run an eshop) not deploy too often per hour.

With one simple instruction the system (99.9999% of the time) gains the handy property that “only” two processes end up with the database files open at once.

Thanks for the vibes!

I took three weeks off from tech, read books from last century, and travelled Europe. Coming back, reading LLM generated content and code feels like nails on a chalkboard. Taste, it does not have taste.

If the problem is excessive deployments via GitHub Actions, why not use concurrency control on GitHub Actions ( https://docs.github.com/en/actions/how-tos/write-workflows/c... ) instead of relying on agent randomness and the hope that it won't make the same mistake again? Am I missing something?

Redis, four dbs, container orchestration for a site of this modest scope… generated blog posts.

Our AI future is a lot less grand than I expected.

> json_extract returns native types. json_extract(data, '$.id') returns an integer if the value was stored as a number. Comparing it to a string silently fails. Always CAST(json_extract(...) AS TEXT) when you need string comparison.

More simply:

    sqlite> select typeof('{a:1}'->>'a') ;
    ╭──────────────────────╮
    │ typeof('{a:1}'->>... │
    ╞══════════════════════╡
    │ integer              │
    ╰──────────────────────╯

vs:

    sqlite> select typeof('{a:1}'->'a') ;
    ╭──────────────────────╮
    │ typeof('{a:1}'->'a') │
    ╞══════════════════════╡
    │ text                 │
    ╰──────────────────────╯

SQLite is a rock solid piece of software that offers a great value prop: in-process database. For locally running apps (desktop or mobile), this makes perfect sense.

However, I genuinely don't see the appeal when you are in a client/server environment. Spinning up Postgres via a container is a one-liner and equally simple for tests (via testcontainers or pglite). The "simple" type system of SQLite feels like nothing but a limitation to me.

llm generated article.

please consider writing it yourself. quirks in human writing is infinitely more interesting than a next-token-predicted 500 word piece

I see tons of articles like this, and I have no doubt sqlite proved to be a great piece of software in production environments, but what I rarely find discussed is that we lack tools that enable you to access and _maintain_ SQLite databases.

It's so convenient to just open Datagrip and have a look at all my PostgreSQL instances; that's not possible with sqlite AFAIK (not even SSH tunnelling?). If something goes wrong, you have to SSH into the machine and use raw SQL. I know there are some cool front-end interfaces to inspect the db but it requires more setup than you'd expect.

I think that most people give up on sqlite for this reason and not because of its performance.

> embarrassingly simple

This is becoming the new overused LLM goto expression for describing basic concepts.

The LLM prose are grating read. I promise, you'd do a better job yourself.

I use SqLite for a small hobby project, fine for that. Wanted to read the article to see why I should not, but it attacked me with a "subscribe" popup, so I stopped there. The comments here seem to be based on daydreaming on scaling to a lot of users who need 24/7 uptime, which is not always the case.

> Yes. For a single-server deployment with moderate write volume, SQLite eliminates an entire category of infrastructure complexity. No connection pool tuning. No database server upgrades. No replication lag.

None of these is needed if you run sqlite sized workloads...

I like SQLite but right tools for right jobs... tho data loss is most likely code bug

A well designed system shouldn’t drop orders?

If you perform at least once processing then use Stripe idempotency keys you avoid such issues?

I don't know if it's just me, but this whole post seems to have time traveled forward from about 3-4 days ago.

It's not just a repost. The thread includes a comment I made at the time which now from "1 hour ago".

Makes me wonder if it's an honest bug or someone has hacked the hacker news front page to sell their t-shits, mugs, and AI starter kits.

Am I the only one finding this article highly suspect? It seems like the errors made are so basic, i.e. using the wrong SQL dialect for the db system in use, and there orders were apparently only at 17?

I still haven't figured out a good way to due blue/green sqlite deploys on fly.io. Is this just a limitation of using sqlite or using Fly? I've been very happy with sqlite otherwise, rather unsure how to do a cutover to a new instance.

Anyone have some docs on how to cutover gracefully with sqlite on other providers?

I've a busy app, i just deploy to canary. And use loadbalancer to move 5% traffic to it, i observe how it reacts and then rollout the canary changes to all.

how hard and complex is it to roll out postgres?

> Backups are cp production.sqlite3 backup.sqlite3

I use gobackup[0] as another container in compose.yml file which can backup to multiple locations.

[0]: https://gobackup.github.io/

NIH syndrome, almost mental health issues.

could have used firebird embedded, also a simple deployment such as sqllite, but better concurrency and more complete system, also a tad faster

Slopcoded article for a Slopcoded website

Just use a 4gb server and install Postgres

If Nico send him an email. The AI CEO should take his offer.

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