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ADR-43: message ttl
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Signed-off-by: R.I.Pienaar <[email protected]>
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ripienaar committed Jul 11, 2024
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3 changes: 3 additions & 0 deletions README.md
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|[ADR-36](adr/ADR-36.md)|jetstream, client, server|Subject Mapping Transforms in Streams|
|[ADR-37](adr/ADR-37.md)|jetstream, client, spec|JetStream Simplification|
|[ADR-40](adr/ADR-40.md)|client, server, spec|NATS Connection|
|[ADR-43](adr/ADR-43.md)|jetstream, client, server|JetStream Per-Message TTL|

## Jetstream

Expand All @@ -59,6 +60,7 @@ This repository captures Architecture, Design Specifications and Feature Guidanc
|[ADR-34](adr/ADR-34.md)|jetstream, client, server|JetStream Consumers Multiple Filters|
|[ADR-36](adr/ADR-36.md)|jetstream, client, server|Subject Mapping Transforms in Streams|
|[ADR-37](adr/ADR-37.md)|jetstream, client, spec|JetStream Simplification|
|[ADR-43](adr/ADR-43.md)|jetstream, client, server|JetStream Per-Message TTL|

## Kv

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|[ADR-39](adr/ADR-39.md)|server, security|Certificate Store|
|[ADR-40](adr/ADR-40.md)|client, server, spec|NATS Connection|
|[ADR-41](adr/ADR-41.md)|observability, server|NATS Message Path Tracing|
|[ADR-43](adr/ADR-43.md)|jetstream, client, server|JetStream Per-Message TTL|

## Spec

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2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion adr-template.md
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|--------|-----|
|Date |YYYY-MM-DD|
|Author |@<github user>, @<github user>|
|Status |`Proposed`, `Approved` `Partially Implemented`, `Implemented`|
|Status |`Approved` `Partially Implemented`, `Implemented`|
|Tags |jetstream, client, server|

|Revision|Date|Author|Info|
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# JetStream Per-Message TTL

| Metadata | Value |
|----------|---------------------------|
| Date | 2024-07-11 |
| Author | @ripienaar |
| Status | Approved |
| Tags | jetstream, client, server |

## Context and motivation

Streams support a one-size-fits-all approach to message TTL based on the MaxAge setting. This causes any message in the
Stream to expire at that age.

There are numerous uses for a per-message version of this limit, some listed below:

* KV tombstones are a problem in that they forever clog up the buckets with noise, these could have a TTL to make them expire once not useful anymore
* Server-applied limits can result in tombstones with a short per message TTL so that consumers can be notified of limits being processed. Useful in KV watch scenarios being notified about TTL removals
* A stream may have a general MaxAge but some messages may have infinite retention, think a schema or type hints in a KV bucket that is forever while general keys have TTLs
* TODO: user use cases

Related issues [#3268](https://github.com/nats-io/nats-server/issues/3268)

## Per-Message TTL

We will allow a message to supply a TTL as a duration in a header called `Nats-TTL` followed by the duration as
nanoseconds, the sever may not support nanosecond level precision and clients can choose to expose TTL as
seconds or nanoseconds.

The duration will be used by the server to calculate the deadline for removing the message based on its Stream
timestamp and the stated duration.

The TTL may not exceed the Stream MaxAge to give administrators a hard cap for the purposes of managing resources.

A TTL of zero will be ignored, any other unparsable value will result in a error reported in the Pub Ack and the message
being discarded.

Setting the header `Nats-No-Expire` to `1` will result in a message that will never be expired.

## Limit Tombstones

Several scenarios for server-created tombstones can be imagined, the most often requested one though is when MaxAge
removes last value (ie. the current value) for a Key.

In this case when the server removes a message and the message is the last in the subject it would place a message
with a TTL matching the Stream configuration value. The following headers would be placed:

```
Nats-Applied-Limit: MaxAge
Nats-TTL: 1000000000
```

The `Nats-Limit-Applied` field is there to support future expansion of this feature.

This behaviour is off by default unless opted in on the Stream Configuration.

## Publish Acknowledgements

We could optionally extend the `PubAck` as follows:

```golang
type PubAck struct {
MsgTTL uint64 `json:"msg_ttl,omitempty"`
}
```

This gives clients a chance to confirm, without Stream Info or should the Stream be edited after Info, if the TTL
got applied.

## Stream Configuration

Weather or not a stream support this behavior should be a configuration opt-in. We want clients to definitely know
when this is supported which the opt-in approach with a boolean on the configuration would make clear.

We have to assume someone will want to create a replication topology where at some point in the topology these tombstone
type messages are retained for an audit trail. So a Stream with this feature enabled can replicate to one with it
disabled and all the messages that would have been TTLed will be retained.

```golang
type StreamConfig struct {
// AllowMsgTTL allows header initiated per-message TTLs
AllowMsgTTL bool `json:"allow_msg_ttl"`

// LimitsTTL activates writing of messages when limits are applied with a specific TTL
LimitsTTL time.Duration `json:"limits_ttl"`
}
```

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