DuckDB DuckLake Extension

DuckLake is an open Lakehouse format that is built on SQL and Parquet. DuckLake stores metadata in a catalog database, and stores data in Parquet files. The DuckLake extension allows DuckDB to directly read and write data from DuckLake.

See the DuckLake website for more information.

Installation

DuckLake can be installed using the INSTALL command:

INSTALL ducklake;

The latest development version can be installed from core_nightly:

FORCE INSTALL ducklake FROM core_nightly;

Usage

DuckLake databases can be attached using the ATTACH syntax, after which tables can be created, modified and queried using standard SQL.

Below is a short usage example that stores the metadata in a DuckDB database file called metadata.ducklake, and the data in Parquet files in the file_path directory:

ATTACH 'ducklake:metadata.ducklake' AS my_ducklake (DATA_PATH 'file_path/');
USE my_ducklake;
CREATE TABLE my_ducklake.my_table(id INTEGER, val VARCHAR);
INSERT INTO my_ducklake.my_table VALUES (1, 'Hello'), (2, 'World');
FROM my_ducklake.my_table;
┌───────┬─────────┐
│  id   │   val   │
│ int32 │ varchar │
├───────┼─────────┤
│     1 │ Hello   │
│     2 │ World   │
└───────┴─────────┘

Updates

UPDATE my_ducklake.my_table SET val='DuckLake' WHERE id=2;
FROM my_ducklake.my_table;
┌───────┬──────────┐
│  id   │   val    │
│ int32 │ varchar  │
├───────┼──────────┤
│     1 │ Hello    │
│     2 │ DuckLake │
└───────┴──────────┘

Time Travel

FROM my_ducklake.my_table AT (VERSION => 2);
┌───────┬─────────┐
│  id   │   val   │
│ int32 │ varchar │
├───────┼─────────┤
│     1 │ Hello   │
│     2 │ World   │
└───────┴─────────┘

Schema Evolution

ALTER TABLE my_ducklake.my_table ADD COLUMN new_column VARCHAR;
FROM my_ducklake.my_table;
┌───────┬──────────┬────────────┐
│  id   │   val    │ new_column │
│ int32 │ varchar  │  varchar   │
├───────┼──────────┼────────────┤
│     1 │ Hello    │ NULL       │
│     2 │ DuckLake │ NULL       │
└───────┴──────────┴────────────┘

Change Data Feed

FROM my_ducklake.table_changes('my_table', 2, 2);
┌─────────────┬───────┬─────────────┬───────┬─────────┐
│ snapshot_id │ rowid │ change_type │  id   │   val   │
│    int64    │ int64 │   varchar   │ int32 │ varchar │
├─────────────┼───────┼─────────────┼───────┼─────────┤
│           2 │     0 │ insert      │     1 │ Hello   │
│           2 │     1 │ insert      │     2 │ World   │
└─────────────┴───────┴─────────────┴───────┴─────────┘

See the Usage guide for more information.

Building & Loading the Extension

To build, type

git submodule init
git submodule update
# to build with multiple cores, use `make GEN=ninja release`
make pull
make

To run, run the bundled duckdb shell:

 ./build/release/duckdb

Contributing

We are happy to have outside contributions to our DuckLake extension. We currently have two active branches, and depending on your contribution, you must target the appropriate branch. Please note that bug fixes are always welcome. For new features, please coordinate with the team before starting any implementation.

1. main. Our main branch is our DuckLake implementation that uses DuckDB main as a submodule. If your contribution is a new feature, or a bug fix that requires a DuckLake spec change, or if it strictly depends on a change in DuckDB main, you must target this branch.
2. 1.5-variegata. Here, we use DuckDB 1.5-variegata as a submodule. Target this branch if you have a bug-fix that does not require a DuckLake spec change.

Testing

# run all DuckLake extension tests
./build/release/test/unittest
# run a single test file
./build/release/test/unittest test/sql/transaction/create_conflict.test
# run tests matching a pattern
./build/release/test/unittest "test/sql/partitioning/*"

# run DuckDB core tests using DuckLake as storage backend
./build/release/test/unittest --test-config test/configs/attach_ducklake.json --test-dir duckdb

# run DuckLake tests using PostgreSQL as catalog database (requires running PostgreSQL)
./build/release/test/unittest --test-config test/configs/postgres.json
# run DuckLake tests using SQLite as catalog database
./build/release/test/unittest --test-config test/configs/sqlite.json

# run tests with deletion vectors enabled
./build/release/test/unittest --test-config test/configs/deletion_vectors.json