Files
lancedb/python
lancedb-gatefixer[bot] 51ea02ea8c fix: pin remote BlobFile reads to the opened version (#4295)
## Cause

On latest-tracking remote tables, `fetch_blob_files` probed a concrete
table version but retained `None` on each handle. Later range reads
resolved the latest version again, so an update or delete could make an
opened handle fail.

## Fix

For nonempty blobs, capture `x-lancedb-version` from the 206 size probe
and include it on every later range request. Reject a nonempty probe
without a valid version. Accept an empty-blob 416 probe with or without
that header, because an empty handle makes no later data range request.
The Python remote mock now covers both response shapes.

## Limitation

A table dropped and recreated with the same name can reuse version
numbers and row addresses. Version pinning does not identify the table
itself, so an old handle can still return data from the recreated table.
That identity case needs a separate fix. Callers that replace a table
should discard its old blob handles.

## Validation

- `cargo test --quiet --features remote -p lancedb --lib
remote::table::blobs::tests` (24 passed)
- Rebuilt the Python extension; `uv run --extra tests pytest
python/tests/test_remote_db.py -q -k remote_blob` (6 passed)
- `cargo clippy --quiet --features remote -p lancedb --lib --tests
--examples`
- `cargo fmt --all -- --check`, `ruff check .`, and `ruff format .`

Fixes #4276

<!-- lance-gatekeeper-fix:v1 agent=e309bdf75b1a87f6492a6dc3ee1bfd81
generation=1 -->

---------

Co-authored-by: Gatefixer <313497061+lancedb-gatefixer[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
2026-09-29 08:35:19 -05:00
..
2025-01-29 08:27:07 -08:00
2024-04-05 16:22:59 -07:00

LanceDB Python SDK

A Python library for LanceDB.

Installation

pip install lancedb

Pre-Haswell x86_64 hosts: lancedb-compat

The default lancedb wheel targets x86-64-haswell (AVX2 + FMA + F16C) for full performance on modern hardware. Pre-Haswell hosts — Intel Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge / Westmere; AMD Bulldozer / Piledriver / Steamroller — don't have AVX2 and crash with Illegal instruction at import lancedb.

For those hosts, install the lancedb-compat package instead:

pip install lancedb-compat

Same Python API (import lancedb works as usual). The compat wheel is compiled at the x86-64-v2 baseline (Nehalem-class) and uses runtime SIMD dispatch in the embedded lance crate to pick the right kernel tier (scalar / AVX / AVX+FMA / AVX2+FMA / AVX-512) at load time, so it still goes fast on modern hardware while running cleanly on the pre-Haswell silicon. Use lance.simd_info() from Python to verify which tier was selected.

lancedb and lancedb-compat install to the same lancedb/ namespace and conflict at install time. Pick one. To switch, pip uninstall lancedb first, then pip install lancedb-compat (or vice-versa).

If you need a custom baseline (or lancedb-compat isn't yet published for your platform), build from source with the override:

RUSTFLAGS="-C target-cpu=x86-64-v2" maturin build --release
pip install ./target/wheels/lancedb-*.whl

Preview Releases

Stable releases are created about every 2 weeks. For the latest features and bug fixes, you can install the preview release. These releases receive the same level of testing as stable releases, but are not guaranteed to be available for more than 6 months after they are released. Once your application is stable, we recommend switching to stable releases.

pip install --pre --extra-index-url https://pypi.fury.io/lancedb/ lancedb

Threading in CPU-limited containers

LanceDB uses separate pools for compute work and storage I/O. On a container with two visible CPUs, current releases intentionally use one compute worker by default; no manual configuration is needed. If every query logs an I/O core reservation warning on a two-CPU container, upgrade from LanceDB 0.21.1 or earlier.

The two commonly tuned environment variables control different resources:

  • LANCE_CPU_THREADS overrides the number of compute workers. One worker is the appropriate setting for a two-CPU container when an explicit override is needed.
  • LANCE_IO_THREADS controls concurrent storage operations, not reserved CPU cores. Its default can be greater than the number of CPUs because I/O workers spend much of their time waiting for storage.

Keep the defaults unless measurements show that the workload benefits from an override. See the Lance threading model for the current defaults and tuning guidance.

Usage

Basic Example

import lancedb
db = lancedb.connect('<PATH_TO_LANCEDB_DATASET>')
table = db.open_table('my_table')
results = table.search([0.1, 0.3]).limit(20).to_list()
print(results)

Development

See CONTRIBUTING.md for information on how to contribute to LanceDB.