SETEX

Sets the string value and expiration time of a key. Creates the key if it doesn’t exist.

Browse all commands · Upstream source documentation

Reference field	Value
Canonical name	SETEX
Catalog group	String commands
Upstream since	2.0.0 — upstream Redis/module version, not an ffkv release
Pinned catalog	Redis 8.10.0

Syntax

SETEX key seconds value

ffkv behavior and limits

Keys and values are binary-safe bytes. Conditional SET and DELEX comparisons use the stored bytes; DIGEST uses XXH3, not a cryptographic digest.

Source: README.md:571–585; src/engine/strings.rs; tests/bdd/features/strings.feature.

All requests share the 8 MiB framing/1,024-argument ingress limit; normal RESP replies have 64 MiB wire/logical budgets with bounded nesting/value counts. Management and Lua origins impose smaller budgets. These are not a process RSS cap. Catalog inclusion is not exhaustive option or wire-format parity. See limits and compatibility.

Upstream metadata

The following fields come from the pinned Redis metadata, not measured ffkv performance or an assertion that ffkv enforces every upstream flag. Running COMMAND INFO/COMMAND DOCS describe the current engine.

Upstream Redis complexity: O(1)

Upstream arity: 4 (includes the command name; a negative number is a minimum).

Command flags: WRITE, DENYOOM.

ACL categories: STRING.

Documentation flags: DEPRECATED.

Argument structure

Argument	Type	Constraints / metadata
key	key	key_spec_index: 0
seconds	integer	Required
value	string	Required

Key specifications

Upstream key discovery descriptors (indexes are relative to the full command vector):

[
  {
    "flags": [
      "OW",
      "UPDATE"
    ],
    "begin_search": {
      "index": {
        "pos": 1
      }
    },
    "find_keys": {
      "range": {
        "lastkey": 0,
        "step": 1,
        "limit": 0
      }
    }
  }
]

Additional pinned upstream metadata

{
  "group": "string",
  "since": "2.0.0",
  "deprecated_since": "2.6.12",
  "replaced_by": "`SET` with the `EX` argument"
}

Metadata source · Local snapshot: src/command_metadata.json, key setex.

BDD coverage and source examples

These are source observations, not a test run performed by this documentation build. A tag identifies scenario intent; an extracted vector identifies a command invocation, which may intentionally produce an error. Scenarios may require setup, multiple connections, persistence, cluster nodes or native-module fixtures.

• Second setex validates before changing a value — tests/bdd/features/strings.feature:830; command tag and invocation observed.

Extracted command vectors

The following JSON arrays are the test harness’s argument vectors, not shell commands. Numeric arguments are converted by the harness; objects of the form {"base64":"…"} represent decoded binary bytes, not a literal JSON command argument. Preserve scenario setup and connection ordering. See the CLI guide for shell quoting and binary stdin. No reply is invented or inferred.

Second setex validates before changing a value — tests/bdd/features/strings.feature:832 (I execute:)

[
  "SETEX",
  "item",
  "3600",
  "payload"
]

Next source assertion: the reply equals:

"OK"

Second setex validates before changing a value — tests/bdd/features/strings.feature:848 (I execute:)

[
  "SETEX",
  "item",
  "-1",
  "changed"
]

Next source assertion: the reply is an error with code “ERR”