How to use cache clear without resetting RateLimiter

[blackjak231]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to use Laravel's RateLimiter to rate limit event triggers and notification triggers.

The issue : RateLimiter uses cache, which gets cleared whenever I deploy in production (to prevent any issues with previous versions). This causes an issue if I want to limit the number of notification to 1 per day for example. Here is a concrete example :

Let's imagine I have a Ratelimiter configured to 1 per day :
1 - Notification A is sent to users at 10 am --> ratelimiter stores 1 in db with given key
2 - Deploy happens @ 11am --> cache is cleared
3 - @ 1pm some event attempts to trigger notification 1 and since cache was cleared, it is sent to users (again)

What I'de love to achieve is exactly what RateLimiter is doing in cache but persisted, without reinventing the wheel.

Any tips ?

Thanks !

[blackjak231]

Solved it on my own.
For anyone looking for an answer to this :

When using php artisan cache:clear, Laravel actually only clears the default cache. This means that it will only clear the "cache" connection configured, which uses db 1.

The easy solution was to create a new DB connection that uses redis db 2. In my case, I called it persistent :

// config/database.php

// ..

    'redis' => [

        // ...

        'cache' => [
            'url' => env('REDIS_URL'),
            'host' => env('REDIS_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
            'password' => env('REDIS_PASSWORD', null),
            'port' => env('REDIS_PORT', '6379'),
            'database' => env('REDIS_CACHE_DB', '1'),
        ],
        

        'persistent' => [
            'url' => env('REDIS_URL'),
            'host' => env('REDIS_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
            'password' => env('REDIS_PASSWORD', null),
            'port' => env('REDIS_PORT', '6379'),
            'database' => env('REDIS_PERSISTED_DB', '2'),
        ],

Then create a new cache store that uses this connection :

// config/cache.php

//...

    'stores' => [
        
        //...
        
        'redis' => [
            'driver' => 'redis',
            'connection' => 'cache',
            'lock_connection' => 'default',
        ],

        'persistent_redis' => [
            'driver' => 'redis',
            'connection' => 'persistent',
            'lock_connection' => 'default',
        ],
        
        //...

Finally, in the same file, configure the rate limiter per laravel's documentation to use this store rather than the default one :

// config/cache.php

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Str;

return [

    'default' => env('CACHE_DRIVER', 'file'),

    'limiter' => env('LIMITER_DRIVER', 'persistent_redis'),
    
    //...
    

While this allows me to use php artisan cache:clear without fear of clearing my more persistent cache, this also allows me to clear the semi-persistant cache if necessary using php artisan cache:clear --store=persistent_redis.

I hope this can help other people someday :)

Cheers !