Performance Optimization: Replacing Protobuf with Direct C-to-Rust Bindings in PgDog PostgreSQL Proxy
By
whiteros_e
Front-window bakery material. Catches the eye, delivers the goods.
Summary
The article details how PgDog, a PostgreSQL proxy written in Rust, replaced Protobuf serialization with direct C-to-Rust bindings to achieve significant performance improvements. By forking the pg_query.rs library and using bindgen with Claude-generated wrappers, the team eliminated Protobuf overhead, resulting in 5x faster performance for SQL query parsing. The article explains the technical approach, performance benchmarks, and benefits of direct FFI (Foreign Function Interface) over Protobuf for high-performance systems.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledProtobuf is fast, but not using Protobuf is faster.
We forked pg_query.rs and replaced Protobuf with direct C-to-Rust (and back to C) bindings, using bindgen and Claude-generated wrappers.
This resulted in 5x faster performance for SQL query parsing in our PostgreSQL proxy.
The elimination of Protobuf serialization overhead significantly improved our system's throughput.
Direct FFI calls proved more efficient than Protobuf for high-performance database proxy applications.
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