Memcached

Before starting: Make sure you have the necessary folders and permissions — get more information.

Links: Homepage | Downloads | Documentation
Dependencies: Libevent
Version: 1.4.31

Memcached is an in-memory key-value store for small chunks of arbitrary data.

Get the Code

Switch to /usr/local/src and download the source package.

cd /usr/local/src
curl --remote-name http://www.memcached.org/files/memcached-VERSION.tar.gz

Extract the archive and move into the folder.

tar -xzvf memcached-VERSION.tar.gz
cd memcached-VERSION

Compile and Install

Configure, compile and install into /usr/local/memcached-VERSION.

./configure \
  --prefix=/usr/local/memcached-VERSION \
  --with-libevent=/usr/local/libevent
make
make install

Create a symbolic link that points /usr/local/memcached to /usr/local/memcached-VERSION.

ln -s memcached-VERSION /usr/local/memcached

Shell

Execute the following lines to update your Bash startup script.

echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/memcached/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export MANPATH=/usr/local/memcached/share/man:$MANPATH' >> ~/.bash_profile

Load the new shell configurations.

source ~/.bash_profile

Manual Start/Stop

To start the Memcached server.

memcached -l 127.0.0.1 -vv

Press CTRL-C to stop the Memcached server.

Automatically Start the Server at Boot

Create a configuration file for Launchd.

nano ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.memcached.memcached.plist

Copy and paste the following text into the aforementioned file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.memcached.memcached</string>

    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/usr/local/memcached/bin/memcached</string>
      <string>-l</string>
      <string>127.0.0.1</string>
      <string>-vv</string>
    </array>

    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/usr/local/var/log/memcached.log</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/usr/local/var/log/memcached.log</string>

    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
  </dict>
</plist>

Register with Launchd and start the server.

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.memcached.memcached.plist

Deregister with Launchd. Kill the process manually.

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.memcached.memcached.plist

Verify the Installation

Verify that you have successfully installed Memcached.

memcached -V

Using the Memcached Telnet Interface

You can connect to the Memcached server with Telnet.

telnet localhost 11211

To test if everything is working correctly, set a cache item.

set foo 0 900 5
hello

To retrieve the cache item.

get foo

To exit the Telnet session.

quit

For more information on using Memcached Telnet commands.

Invalidate All Cache Items

To flush the contents of your Memcached server. Useful in a development environment.

echo 'flush_all' | nc localhost 11211