## Summary
Changes the `Snapshot.url` field from a fixed-length
`CharField(max_length=65535)` to a variable-length `TextField` while
enforcing a practical 8000-character limit. This allows short URLs to
use minimal storage space while still supporting very long URLs (e.g.,
data: URLs, deeply nested query strings) that are common in real-world
scenarios.
The TextField with a normal database index maintains fast exact, prefix,
and substring lookups while reducing storage overhead for typical URLs.
## Related issues
Improves URL handling to match practical web server/proxy limits (8000
chars is the de facto standard enforced by most infrastructure).
## Changes these areas
- [x] Internal architecture
- [x] Snapshot data layout on disk
## Details
### Changes Made
1. **`archivebox/misc/util.py`**: Reduced `MAX_URL_LENGTH` from 65535 to
8000 with detailed comments explaining the rationale
2. **`archivebox/core/models.py`**: Changed `Snapshot.url` field from
`CharField(max_length=MAX_URL_LENGTH)` to `TextField(db_index=True)`
with validation in the model's `save()` method
3. **`archivebox/core/migrations/0049_alter_snapshot_url.py`**: Django
migration to alter the field type
4. **`archivebox/tests/test_snapshot_url_length.py`**: Comprehensive
test suite covering:
- URL length validation at the limit and over the limit
- Full round-trip persistence through the database
- Query operations (exact match, prefix search, substring search)
- Uniqueness constraints per crawl
- Cross-crawl URL reuse
### Why This Change
- **Storage efficiency**: Variable-length TextField doesn't reserve 8000
bytes for every URL
- **Practical limit**: 8000 chars matches the upper bound enforced by
most web servers and proxies
- **Query performance**: Normal database index on TextField maintains
fast lookups for all query types
- **Real-world support**: Handles legitimate long URLs (data: URIs,
complex query strings) while rejecting pathological cases
## Test Plan
Added comprehensive test suite (`test_snapshot_url_length.py`) that
validates:
- URLs at exactly the 8000-char limit are accepted and persisted
correctly
- URLs exceeding the limit are rejected with validation errors
- Database queries (exact, prefix, substring) work correctly on long
URLs
- Uniqueness constraints per crawl are still enforced
- Same URL can exist in different crawls
All tests pass with the new implementation.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01BLnGTL5GSoouD4ihaYp55n
<!-- This is an auto-generated description by cubic. -->
---
## Summary by cubic
Store `Snapshot.url` as an indexed `TextField` to support very long URLs
efficiently while keeping exact, prefix, and substring searches fast.
The supported URL length remains 65535 characters.
- **Refactors**
- Changed `Snapshot.url` from `CharField` to `TextField(db_index=True)`.
- Kept `MAX_URL_LENGTH` at 65535 and validate in model/utilities; tests
updated to the 65535 boundary, lookups, and per-crawl uniqueness.
- **Migration**
- Apply `0049_alter_snapshot_url`.
- No data rewrite; existing rows remain. New/updated URLs must be ≤65535
chars.
<sup>Written for commit d6d479f50b.
Summary will update on new commits.</sup>
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<!-- End of auto-generated description by cubic. -->
The column change to a variable-length, still-indexed TextField is what
matters for supporting long URLs efficiently — no reason to lower the
supported limit. Adjust the long-URL tests to the real 65535 boundary.
Snapshot.url was a CharField(max_length=65535) which reserves a fixed-width
column and is too long to index or constrain on real DB backends. Store it as a
variable-length TextField instead, so short URLs don't waste space and very long
URLs (up to MAX_URL_LENGTH=8000) are supported, while keeping a normal index on
the field so exact, prefix, and substring (icontains) URL lookups all stay fast.
- misc/util.py: MAX_URL_LENGTH 65535 -> 8000 (the practical web-server limit)
- core/models.py: Snapshot.url CharField -> TextField(db_index=True)
- migration 0049_alter_snapshot_url
- tests covering 8000-char persistence, exact/prefix/substring lookups,
over-length rejection, and per-crawl uniqueness for long URLs
https://claude.ai/code/session_01BLnGTL5GSoouD4ihaYp55n
