Luigi/SQLite: How to update database after initial load?

Question

I'm loading data into an SQLite database via Luigi with the following code:

class LoadData(luigi.Task):   
    
    def requires(self):
        return TransformData()
        
    def run(self):
        with sqlite3.connect('database.db') as db:
            cursor = db.cursor()
            cursor.execute("INSERT INTO prod SELECT * FROM staging;")
    def output(self):
        return luigi.LocalTarget('database.db')

This works, but when I want to update or insert new data, the task doesn't execute because Luigi considers it complete (database.db already exists).

Maybe I didn't understand the good use of LocalTarget. What is the right way to approach this?

///EDIT: My question applies to the example given on this page (code for le_create_db.py). How do you solve updates and inserts in that example?

///EDIT: This question about appending to a file is similar, but the solution using marker files does not work because sqla expects an SQLAlchemyTarget output. Are there any other answers, specifically about appending to a database?

Answer 1

Consider using a mock file: http://gouthamanbalaraman.com/blog/building-luigi-task-pipeline.html

In each execution you will be creating a new file.

Another solution could be using the strategy of creating a marker table inside the db, for example: https://luigi.readthedocs.io/en/stable/api/luigi.contrib.postgres.html#luigi.contrib.postgres.PostgresTarget

Answer 2

I had the same issue and was able to solve it by overriding the complete method to simply return False:

def complete(self):
    return False

Now the task is re-run every time, even if database file is present.