Serialize the value stored at key in a Redis-specific format and return it to the user. The returned value can be synthesized back into a Redis key using the RESTORE command.

The serialization format is opaque and non-standard, however it has a few semantic characteristics:

• It contains a 64-bit checksum that is used to make sure errors will be detected. The RESTORE command makes sure to check the checksum before synthesizing a key using the serialized value.
• Values are encoded in the same format used by RDB.
• An RDB version is encoded inside the serialized value, so that different Redis versions with incompatible RDB formats will refuse to process the serialized value.

The serialized value does NOT contain expire information. In order to capture the time to live of the current value the PTTL command should be used.

If key does not exist a nil bulk reply is returned.

@return

@bulk-string-reply: the serialized value.

@examples

SET mykey 10
DUMP mykey