May 11, 2025: This Week in OpenDAL

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Overall Activity Summary

The past week has been highly productive for the Apache OpenDAL repository, with significant contributions across bindings, core features, and service integrations. A total of 20 issues, 33 pull requests, and 5 discussions were active. Key areas of focus included enhancing bindings (Go, Java, C, and Python), improving service capabilities, and addressing critical bugs.

Key Ongoing Projects

• Go Binding Enhancements:

  • feat(bindings/go): implement io.Seeker #6151 by @yuchanns implements io.Seeker support for Go bindings, enabling offset-based reads.
  • refactor(bindings/go): add ffiCall type for FFI function signature #6158 by @yuchanns introduces an ffiCall type for better maintainability in Go bindings.

• Java Binding Improvements:

  • feat(bindings/java): Add new read API to support passing options  #6081 by @sunheyi6 adds a new read API with support for passing options, addressing bindings/java: Add new read API to support passing options #5991.
  • feat(java): add ReadOptions for read methods #6157 by @liamzwbao adds ReadOptions for read methods, closing new feature: Add read with range support in java binding #5825.

• C Binding Updates:

  • refactor(bindings/c)!: extract the writer closing logic from opendal_writer_free #6128 by @taoseng refactors writer closing logic to handle errors explicitly, addressing bindings/c: write may fail, but the error is silently ignored. #6125.
  • feat(bindings/c)!: Make features configurable via CMakeLists #6143 by @asukaminato0721 introduces feature-based build options for C bindings.

• Service Enhancements:

  • feat(core): capability list for redb #6165 by @TD-Sky adds list capability for the redb backend, addressing new feature: capability list for redb #6164.
  • fix(core/services/fs): Returning empty dir while list a file path #6154 by @Xuanwo improves file listing behavior for the filesystem service by returning empty directories instead of errors.

Priority Items

• Pull Requests:

  • feat(bindings/go): implement io.Seeker #6151 by @yuchanns: Critical for enabling offset-based reads in Go bindings.
  • feat(core): capability list for redb #6165 by @TD-Sky: Adds essential list functionality for the redb backend.
  • refactor(bindings/c)!: extract the writer closing logic from opendal_writer_free #6128 by @taoseng: Fixes silent error handling in C bindings, ensuring robustness.

• Issues:

  • bindings/c: write may fail, but the error is silently ignored. #6125 by @taoseng: Addresses silent error handling in opendal_writer_free for C bindings.
  • bug: (bindings/go): Reader does not return io.EOF at end of file, causing non-terminating loop. #6148 by @shanipribadi: Fixes io.EOF behavior in Go bindings, which caused non-terminating loops.

Notable Discussions

• Remove blocking API entirely from `raw::Access` #6126: @Xuanwo proposed removing blocking APIs from raw::Access to simplify maintenance and reduce code duplication.
• Concurrent support for opendal list #6115: @Xuanwo initiated a discussion on adding concurrent support for the list operation, which could significantly improve performance for large datasets.
• idea: Implement `raw::Access` for `ObjectStore` in `object_store_opendal` #6162: @Xuanwo suggested implementing raw::Access for ObjectStore in object_store_opendal to enhance interoperability with other systems like DataFusion.

Emerging Trends

• Focus on Bindings: Significant updates across Go, Java, and C bindings indicate a strong push toward improving cross-language support.
• Service-Specific Features: Backend-specific enhancements like list for redb and improved file listing for the filesystem service highlight a trend toward tailored optimizations.
• Error Handling Improvements: Refactoring efforts, such as in refactor(bindings/c)!: extract the writer closing logic from opendal_writer_free #6128, demonstrate a focus on making the codebase more robust and user-friendly.

Good First Issues

• Dedicated append method in Java binding can be merged into write with WriteOption #6163: Merge the dedicated append method in Java bindings into the write method with WriteOption. This is a straightforward task for contributors familiar with Java.
• Tracking issue: Refactor services to use the backend.rs and core.rs convention #5702: Refactor services to adopt the backend.rs and core.rs convention, improving maintainability and clarity.
• Implement Write Returns Metadata for all services #5693: Implement "Write Returns Metadata" for additional services, extending an existing feature with clear documentation.
• Tracking issues of RFC-5479: Context #5480: Add context support for operations, a simple yet impactful enhancement to improve observability.