Re: libpq compression

> On 30 March 2018 at 14:53, Konstantin Knizhnik <k.knizhnik@postgrespro.ru> wrote:

> Hi hackers,

> One of our customers was managed to improve speed about 10 times by using SSL compression for the system where client and servers are located in different geographical regions

> and query results are very large because of JSON columns. Them actually do not need encryption, just compression.

> I expect that it is not the only case where compression of libpq protocol can be useful. Please notice that Postgres replication is also using libpq protocol.

>

> Taken in account that vulnerability was found in SSL compression and so SSLComppression is considered to be deprecated and insecure (http://www.postgresql-archive.org/disable-SSL-compression-td6010072.html), it will be nice to have some alternative mechanism of reducing  libpq traffic.

>

> I have implemented some prototype implementation of it (patch is attached).

> To use zstd compression, Postgres should be configured with --with-zstd. Otherwise compression will use zlib unless it is disabled by --without-zlib option.

> I have added compression=on/off parameter to connection string and -Z option to psql and pgbench utilities.

I'm a bit confused why there was no reply to this. I mean, it wasn't sent on

1st April, the patch still can be applied on top of the master branch and looks

like it even works.

I assume the main concern her is that it's implemented in a rather not

extensible way. Also, if I understand correctly, it compresses the data stream

in both direction server <-> client, not sure if there is any value in

compressing what a client sends to a server. But still I'm wondering why it

didn't start at least a discussion about how it can be implemented. Do I miss

something?