Document key/value safety.

This commit adds safety documentation to the data accessor functions
in Bolt as well as the README. This was documented once in the package
level godoc but it's important enough that it should be more clear.

1 files changed, 7 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/cursor.go b/cursor.go
index 0d8ed16..006c548 100644
--- a/cursor.go
+++ b/cursor.go
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ import (
 // Cursors see nested buckets with value == nil.
 // Cursors can be obtained from a transaction and are valid as long as the transaction is open.
 //
+// Keys and values returned from the cursor are only valid for the life of the transaction.
+//
 // Changing data while traversing with a cursor may cause it to be invalidated
 // and return unexpected keys and/or values. You must reposition your cursor
 // after mutating data.
@@ -25,6 +27,7 @@ func (c *Cursor) Bucket() *Bucket {
 
 // First moves the cursor to the first item in the bucket and returns its key and value.
 // If the bucket is empty then a nil key and value are returned.
+// The returned key and value are only valid for the life of the transaction.
 func (c *Cursor) First() (key []byte, value []byte) {
 	_assert(c.bucket.tx.db != nil, "tx closed")
 	c.stack = c.stack[:0]
@@ -41,6 +44,7 @@ func (c *Cursor) First() (key []byte, value []byte) {
 
 // Last moves the cursor to the last item in the bucket and returns its key and value.
 // If the bucket is empty then a nil key and value are returned.
+// The returned key and value are only valid for the life of the transaction.
 func (c *Cursor) Last() (key []byte, value []byte) {
 	_assert(c.bucket.tx.db != nil, "tx closed")
 	c.stack = c.stack[:0]
@@ -58,6 +62,7 @@ func (c *Cursor) Last() (key []byte, value []byte) {
 
 // Next moves the cursor to the next item in the bucket and returns its key and value.
 // If the cursor is at the end of the bucket then a nil key and value are returned.
+// The returned key and value are only valid for the life of the transaction.
 func (c *Cursor) Next() (key []byte, value []byte) {
 	_assert(c.bucket.tx.db != nil, "tx closed")
 	k, v, flags := c.next()
@@ -69,6 +74,7 @@ func (c *Cursor) Next() (key []byte, value []byte) {
 
 // Prev moves the cursor to the previous item in the bucket and returns its key and value.
 // If the cursor is at the beginning of the bucket then a nil key and value are returned.
+// The returned key and value are only valid for the life of the transaction.
 func (c *Cursor) Prev() (key []byte, value []byte) {
 	_assert(c.bucket.tx.db != nil, "tx closed")
 
@@ -100,6 +106,7 @@ func (c *Cursor) Prev() (key []byte, value []byte) {
 // Seek moves the cursor to a given key and returns it.
 // If the key does not exist then the next key is used. If no keys
 // follow, a nil key is returned.
+// The returned key and value are only valid for the life of the transaction.
 func (c *Cursor) Seek(seek []byte) (key []byte, value []byte) {
 	k, v, flags := c.seek(seek)