Redis in Action: six years of book code with one living file
Example code from the book
At a glance
- What is it?
- A repository that holds the worked examples from a Manning book, spread across seven language directories, where the only file that still changes is the errata.
- Who is it for?
- The useful thing here is not a library to install but a set of worked examples you can read against a book, and the repository's shape makes that explicit: one directory per language, one HTML file that accumulates corrections. Treat the code directories as a snapshot tied to the Redis version that existed when the chapters were written, and treat the errata as the current signal.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Yes. MIT is a permissive licence: you can use, modify and sell software built on it, as long as you keep its copyright and licence notices.
- Is it still maintained?
- Yes. The repository last received commits 173 days ago.
- What is it written in?
- Mainly Python, according to GitHub's language statistics.
Answers come from the project's GitHub data, last synced on September 28, 2026, and from our analysis. They are not legal advice.
Editorial analysis
A repository that is an attachment to a book
The description field says it plainly: Example code from the book. This is not a Redis client, not a framework and not a Redis fork. It is the code that accompanied Redis in Action, written by Josiah Carlson and published by Manning Publications, held in one place so a reader can compare what is on the page with what actually runs.
That framing explains almost every observable property of the repository. There is no package manifest at the root, no version constraint and no release. There is no test command and no continuous integration badge. The top level holds a README, a licence file, a gitignore, a GitHub directory and an errata document, and then seven language directories. A repository shaped like this is not under feature pressure, because it is not trying to be consumed by software.
It has 2,265 stars and 1,152 forks. The fork count is unusually high relative to the star count, and that is consistent with what the repository is: people fork it to keep a copy, to translate an example, to port a chapter, or simply because a fork is the easiest way to keep a scratch file near their own project. High fork-to-star ratios are common in book code and uncommon in libraries, and the ratio here is a good signal about intent.
Seven directories and one dominant language
The tree lists clojure-lang, gawk, golang, java, node, python and ruby. Seven directories, seven languages, and the naming is inconsistent in a way that tells you the directories accumulated over time rather than being planned as a set. Three of them use the language name alone, two use the ecosystem name, one uses the author credit form, and one is named after a program rather than a language.
GitHub labels the repository Python, which is the dominant-language heuristic applied to the bytes on disk. It does not mean the project is a Python project. The Python directory is one of seven peers, and there is no README inside any of them describing a supported runtime. If you arrive expecting a pip package you will not find one.
The gawk directory is the entry that rewards a second look. Gawk is the GNU implementation of awk, and Redis in Action does include material on processing Redis slowlog output with awk-style tooling, so a directory named after the program rather than the language is a reminder that the book's examples are not confined to general-purpose languages. A repository that holds seven peers can hold a specialised one without it looking like an outlier.
The errata document is the part that still moves
excerpt_errata.html sits at the root and is the one file the README singles out with a rendered link. The README gives two ways to read it: as a PDF from the publisher's page, and as HTML hosted through htmlpreview, pointing at the master branch copy. The author notes that the repository version should be the most recent one, with a hedge about how consistently that holds.
An errata file is a list of corrections mapping what the book says to what the code actually does. For a book whose subject is a fast-moving server, that list is the honest correction channel: Redis commands changed, some commands were deprecated, and code that ran against version 2.6 may need adjustment for anything later. The README's hedge about the repository copy being current is worth taking seriously, because it is the maintainer telling you not to assume.
The publish workflow matters too. Errata for a Manning title are collected centrally and then rolled into a later printing. A correction that appears in this HTML file has been accepted by the author, which makes it a stronger signal than a reader's issue comment, and stronger still than a blog post explaining the same problem.
A contribution policy that is unusually explicit
The README's final section sets a hard rule about what may be merged. The reasoning is a licensing argument rather than a style argument: the author argues that model outputs cannot confer clear rights over a generated work, so software that is primarily model-generated output will not be accepted, with dependabot named as the single exception. Only human-written contributions get merged.
This matters more than it might appear for a repository like this one, because a book code repository is exactly the kind of target where generated code is tempting. Transcribing seven language directories into a modern Redis client is a task a model can attempt quickly, and it is also the task that would do the most damage, because the whole value of the directory is that the code is the code the author tested against the text.
Read the rest of the policy as scope rather than grievance. The README's opening is a statement of the maintainer's position on two ongoing conflicts, written in blunt language and placed before the project description. That framing is a fact about how the repository presents itself and worth knowing before you file an issue, but it has no bearing on the errata, the code or the licence, which are all MIT and all unaffected by where the maintainer stands.
The activity numbers describe a snapshot, not a project
The last push was 2026-04-16, and there are 15 open issues. There are no releases at all, no tags and no published package in any of the seven languages. A .github directory sits in the tree, but nothing in the repository describes what automation it configures, so it is not worth guessing at what runs on commit.
Read those numbers the way the repository is built rather than the way a library would present them. A library with no releases for six years is a library you should not adopt. A copy of book examples with no releases is the normal state, because there is nothing to version: the code is tied to chapters, and the chapters are tied to a printing.
The MIT licence applies to the repository contents, which is worth stating plainly because it is genuinely permissive for anyone who wants to lift an example into their own code. That is the practical reason the fork count is high, and it is the one place where the permissive licence does real work, since the examples are meant to be copied out of.
The default branch is master, which the README's htmlpreview link relies on. Nothing here needs a modern runtime guarantee, and nothing here is versioned against one.
How to actually use this repository
Treat it as a companion to a specific book rather than as a reference you can query. The most efficient path is to pick a chapter, open the matching language directory, and read the file that corresponds to the listing in the text. The value is in seeing how the author's code for a data structure or a command sequence differs from what you would have written, which is a comparison exercise and not something you can automate.
Cross-language reading is the other option, and it is underused. Because seven directories cover the same material, you can watch the same Redis idea get expressed for a JVM, a Go program, a Ruby script and a Node process. The differences between those versions are where the book's argument about data structures and memory layout becomes concrete, since each language gives you different tools for representing the same in-memory shape.
Before you copy anything into production code, check the errata, then check the Redis version the chapter targets. Book code ages in a specific way, not by becoming wrong but by assuming a default configuration, a single-node topology or a set of commands that have since changed names or behaviour. Reading these examples next to the errata is what keeps an old snapshot usable, and the errata file is the part of the repository that has been maintained for that purpose.
Editorial conclusion
The useful thing here is not a library to install but a set of worked examples you can read against a book, and the repository's shape makes that explicit: one directory per language, one HTML file that accumulates corrections. Treat the code directories as a snapshot tied to the Redis version that existed when the chapters were written, and treat the errata as the current signal. The last push landed on 2026-04-16 and there are no tagged releases, so nothing here installs by version and nothing here promises a maintained API. If you are learning Redis by reading, check the errata page against whichever chapter you are on before you copy an example into a project, because that is the one correction path the maintainer still keeps open.
Frequently asked questions
What code does the redis-in-action repository contain?
It holds worked examples from the Manning book Redis in Action by Josiah Carlson. The code is split across seven directories, one each for Clojure, gawk, Go, Java, Node, Python and Ruby, covering the same Redis material in each language. There is no installable package and no release, because the code is meant to be read next to the book rather than depended on.
Where can I read the errata for Redis in Action?
The corrections live in excerpt_errata.html at the root of the repository, and the README links to a rendered version of that file. The publisher also hosts the errata as a PDF on the book's own page. Checking the errata before using any example is worthwhile, because the book predates several Redis command changes.
Do I need to buy the book to use this code?
The code is under the MIT licence and nothing in the repository restricts copying it out. That said, the examples are written to be read alongside the chapters that explain them, so the book explains why each command sequence is shaped the way it is. Without the text you get working snippets and no reasoning behind them.
Can I use these Redis examples in a production project?
The licence permits it, but the examples assume a Redis version and a single-node setup from the period the book was written. Review anything you take from here against current Redis documentation before shipping it, particularly around deprecated commands, persistence settings and replication. Read it as teaching material with a licence attached, not as maintained production code.
Why does GitHub list this repository as a Python project?
GitHub picks the dominant language by the volume of code on disk, and the Python directory happens to be the largest. The repository actually holds seven languages as peers, with no primary one and no package manifest at the root. Nothing in it is a Python library in the sense of being installable or maintained as one.
Official sources
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