Status: | Accepted |
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Minimum Server Version: | 1.8 |
Contents
A driver can contain a feature to enumerate all collections belonging to a database. This specification defines how collections should be enumerated.
The keywords “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.
- MongoClient
- Driver object representing a connection to MongoDB. This is the root object of a driver’s API and MAY be named differently in some drivers.
- Iterable
- An object or data structure that is a sequence of elements that can be iterated over. This spec is flexible on what that means as different drivers will have different requirements, types, and idioms.
The driver needs to implement different methods of enumeration depending on
MongoDB server version. From MongoDB 2.7.6, the server implements a
listCollections
command that MUST be used if available. For the non-MMAP
storage engines that come with 2.8, this will be the only way how their
collections can be enumerated. For earlier MongoDB server versions, the driver
SHOULD simply query against the systems.namespaces
collection.
On MongoDB versions prior to 2.7.6, the only way to enumerate collections for
a database is by querying the system.namespaces
collection:
db.system.namespaces.find()
This query returns a list of documents through a normal query cursor, which
always include a name
field and optionally a options
field.
Each document describes a namespace. Among collections, these namespaces
also include special collections (containing .system.
or .oplog.
in the
name). The returned documents also include indexes (containing a $
in the
name). Index names MUST NOT be returned while enumerating collections through
db.system.namespaces.find()
.
When returning information, drivers MUST strip the database name from the returned namespace, and only leave the collection name.
MAY be supported, but this is not necessary. These versions allow the
listCollections
command, but return results as a single document, but not
as a cursor. This spec does not cover these versions.
In versions 2.8.0-rc3 and later, the listCollections
command returns a
cursor:
$ use test $ db.runCommand( { listCollections: 1 } );
The command also accepts options.
The filter
option, which acts like a query against the returned collection
documents. You can i.e. use the following to only list the collections
beginning with test
:
$ db.runCommand( { listCollections: 1, filter: { name: /^test/ } } );
Or to find all capped collections:
$ db.runCommand( { listCollections: 1, filter: { 'options.capped': true } } );
The cursor.batchSize
option, which allows you to set how many initial
collections should be returned as part of the cursor specification document
that comes back from the server. This first batch is part of the returned
structure in the firstBatch
key (see more about return types further on).
The command returns a cursor definition structure:
{ cursor: { id: <long>, ns: <string>, firstBatch: [<object>, <object>, ...] }, ok: 1 }
With the cursor.id
and cursor.ns
fields you can retrieve further
collection information structures.
The command also returns the field ok
to
signal whether the command was executed successfully.
This will return the first 25 collection descriptions as part of the returned document:
$ db.runCommand( { listCollections: 1, cursor : { batchSize: 25 } } );
MongoDB 4.4 introduced a comment
option to the listCollections
database command. This option enables users to specify a comment as an arbitrary
BSON type to help trace the operation through the database profiler, currentOp
and logs. The default is to not send a value. If a comment is provided on pre-4.4
servers, the comment should still be attached and the driver should rely on the server
to provide an error to the user.
Example of usage of the comment option:
$ db.runCommand({"listCollections": 1, "comment": "hi there"})
Any comment set on a listCollections
command is inherited by any subsequent
getMore
commands run on the same cursor.id
returned from the
listCollections
command. Therefore, drivers MUST NOT attach the comment
to subsequent getMore commands on a cursor.
Pre MongoDB 2.7.6 servers, which require querying system.namespaces
,
return the name of a collection prefixed with the database name.
Post MongoDB 2.7.6 servers, which have listCollections
implemented,
return the name of a collection without the database name prefixed to it.
Because of this, drivers MUST prefix filters against the name
field with
the database name for pre MongoDB 2.7.6 servers. Because prefixing causes
issues with regular expressions, a driver MUST NOT allow a regular expression
as the match value for the name
field in the filter for pre MongoDB
2.7.6 drivers.
For example, to list all collections with a "listCollections" method, you
would do the following with the filter
argument:
if filter.name is set: if server version < 2.7.6 if typeof filter.name != string throw "value type not accepted" (as it needs to be a static string) else filter.name = "dbname." + filter.name
Filtering against the options
field of a collection has no
restrictions.
For servers that support the listCollections
command, the return types
differ depending on server version. Versions 2.7.6 to 2.8.0-rc2 return a single
document containing all the results, but versions 2.8.0-rc3 and later return a
cursor description. The format that is returned is the same as for any other command cursor:
{ cursor: { id: <long>, ns: <string>, firstBatch: [<object>, <object>, ...] }, ok: 1 }
The number of objects in the firstBatch
field depends on the
cursor.batchSize
option.
Drivers MAY expose methods to return collection names as an array. If your driver already has such a method, its return type MUST NOT be changed in order to prevent breaking backwards compatibility.
Drivers SHOULD expose (a) method(s) to return collection information through a cursor, where the information for each collection is represented by a single document.
With both the pre and post 2.7.6 versions having a different way to enumerate all collections, drivers SHOULD implement their enumeration according to the following algorithm (just like the shell does):
run the listCollections command, with the filter if given if res.code == 59 || res.code == 13390: fall back to querying system.namespaces. if !res.ok: if res.errmsg && res.errmsg.startsWith( "no such cmd" ): fall back to querying system.namespaces. else: throw listCollections command failed exception loop through res.cursor.firstBatch use getmore with res.cursor.id and res.cursor.ns information to loop over remaining results
If you need to fall back to querying system.namespaces
, then you need to
filter out all return documents that contain a $
in the name
field.
When falling back to querying system.namespaces
you will also need to filter
out all the documents that contain ".oplog.$"
as this collection is used for
legacy replication within the local database.
Alternatively, and if a driver already implements checking MongoDB versions, a driver MAY alternatively implement it as:
if server version >= 2.7.6 run the listCollections command, with the filter if given if res.code == 59 || res.code == 13390: throw listCollections command failed exception if res.errmsg && res.errmsg.startsWith( "no such cmd" ): throw listCollections command failed exception loop through res.cursor.firstBatch use getmore with res.cursor.id and res.cursor.ns information to loop over remaining results else fall back to querying system.namespaces.
Drivers SHOULD use the method name listCollections
for a method that
returns all collections with a cursor return type. Drivers MAY use an idiomatic
variant that fits the language the driver is for.
If a driver already has a method to perform one of the listed tasks, there is no need to change it. Do not break backwards compatibility when adding new methods.
All methods:
- SHOULD be on the database object.
- MUST allow a filter to be passed to include only requested collections.
- MAY allow the
cursor.batchSize
option to be passed. - SHOULD allow the
comment
option to be passed. - MUST use the same return type (ie, array or cursor) whether either a pre-2.7.6 server, a post-2.7.6 or a post-2.8.0-rc3 server is being used.
- MUST apply timeouts per the Client Side Operations Timeout specification.
All methods that return cursors MUST support the timeout options documented in Client Side Operations Timeout: Cursors.
Drivers MAY implement a MongoClient method that returns an Iterable of strings,
where each string corresponds to a collection name. This method SHOULD be named
listCollectionNames
.
MongoDB 4.0 introduced a nameOnly
boolean option to the listCollections
database command, which limits the command result to only include collection
names. NOTE: nameOnly
is applied before any filter is applied.
Example return:
[ "me", "oplog.rs", "replset.minvalid", "startup_log", "system.indexes", "system.replset" ]
Server version between 2.7.6 (inclusive) and 4.0 (exclusive) do not support
the nameOnly
option for the listCollections
command and will ignore it
without raising an error. Therefore, drivers MUST always specify the nameOnly
option when they only intend to access collection names from the listCollections
command result, except drivers MUST NOT set nameOnly
if a filter
specifies any keys other than name
.
MongoDB 4.0 also added an authorizedCollections
boolean option to the listCollections
command, which can be used to limit the command result to only include collections
the user is authorized to use. Drivers MAY allow users to set the authorizedCollections
option on the listCollectionNames
method.
Drivers MAY implement a method to return the full name/options
pairs that
are returned from both listCollections
(in the res.cursor.firstBatch
field, and subsequent retrieved documents through getmore on the cursor
constructed from res.cursor.ns
and res.cursor.id
), and the query
result for system.namespaces
.
The returned result for each variant MUST be equivalent, and each collection
that is returned MUST use the field names name
and options
.
In MongoDB 4.4, the ns
field was removed from the index specifications, so
the index specification included in the idIndex
field of the collection
information will no longer contain an ns
field.
- For drivers that report those index specifications in the form of documents or
dictionaries, no special handling is necessary, but any documentation of the
contents of the documents/dictionaries MUST indicate that the
ns
field will no longer be present in MongoDB 4.4+. If the contents of the documents/dictionaries are undocumented, then no special mention of thens
field is necessary. - For drivers that report those index specifications in the form of statically
defined models, the driver MUST manually populate the
ns
field of the models with the appropriate namespace if the server does not report it in thelistCollections
command response. Thens
field is not required to be a part of the models, however.
Example return (a cursor which returns documents, not a simple array):
{ "name" : "me", "options" : { "flags" : 1 } }, { "name" : "oplog.rs", "options" : { "capped" : true, "size" : 10485760, "autoIndexId" : false } }, { "name" : "replset.minvalid", "options" : { "flags" : 1 } }, { "name" : "startup_log", "options" : { "capped" : true, "size" : 10485760 } }, { "name" : "system.indexes", "options" : { } }, { "name" : "system.replset", "options" : { "flags" : 1 } }
When returning this information as a cursor, a driver SHOULD use the
method name listCollections
or an idiomatic variant.
Drivers MAY allow the nameOnly
and authorizedCollections
options
to be passed when executing the listCollections
command for this method.
Drivers MAY implement a method that returns a collection object for each
returned collection, if the driver has such a concept. This method MAY be named
listMongoCollections
.
Example return (in PHP, but abbreviated):
array(6) { [0] => class MongoCollection#6 { } [1] => class MongoCollection#7 { } [2] => class MongoCollection#8 { } [3] => class MongoCollection#9 { } [4] => class MongoCollection#10 { } [5] => class MongoCollection#11 { } }
Drivers MUST specify true for the nameOnly
option when executing the
listCollections
command for this method, except drivers MUST NOT set
nameOnly
if a filter specifies any keys other than name
.
Drivers MAY allow the authorizedCollections
option to be passed when
executing the listCollections
command for this method
listCollections
can be run on a secondary node.- Querying
system.indexes
on a secondary node requires secondaryOk to be set. - Drivers MUST run
listCollections
on the primary node when in a replica set topology, unless directly connected to a secondary node in Single topology.
- standalone node
- replica set primary node
- replica set secondary node
- mongos node
For each of the configurations:
- Create a (new) database
- Create a collection and a capped collection
- Create an index on each of the two collections
- Insert at least one document in each of the two collections
- Run the driver's method that returns a list of collection names (e.g.
listCollectionNames()
):- verify that all collection names are represented in the result
- verify that there are no duplicate collection names
- there are no returned collections that do not exist
- there are no returned collections containing an '$'
- Run the driver's method that returns a list of collection names (e.g.
listCollectionNames()
), pass a filter of{ 'options.capped': true }
, and:- verify that only names of capped collections are represented in the result
- verify that there are no duplicate collection names
- there are no returned collections that do not exist
- there are no returned collections containing an '$'
There should be no backwards compatibility concerns. This SPEC merely deals with how to enumerate collections in future versions of MongoDB.
The shell implements the first algorithm for falling back if the
listCollections
command does not exist
(https://github.com/mongodb/mongo/blob/f32ba54f971c045fb589fe4c3a37da77dc486cee/src/mongo/shell/db.js#L550).
2022-10-05: | Remove spec front matter and reformat changelog. |
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2022-09-15: | Clarify the behavior of comment on pre-4.4 servers. |
2022-02-01: | Add comment option to listCollections command. |
2022-01-20: | Require that timeouts be applied per the client-side operations timeout spec. |
2021-12-17: | Support authorizedCollections option in listCollections
command. |
2021-04-22: | Update to use secondaryOk. |
2020-03-18: | MongoDB 4.4 no longer includes ns field in idIndex field
for listCollections responses. |
2019-03-21: | The method that returns a list of collection names should be named
listCollectionNames . The method that returns a list of
collection objects may be named listMongoCollections . |
2018-07-03: | Clarify that nameOnly must not be used with filters other than
name . |
2018-05-18: | Support nameOnly option in listCollections command. |
2017-09-27: | Clarify reason for filtering collection names containing '$'. |
2015-01-14: | Clarify trimming of database name. Put preferred method name for listing collections with a cursor as return value. |
2014-12-18: | Update with the server change to return a cursor for
listCollections . |