January 6, 2026
Speed rings, pedants sting
High-Performance DBMSs with io_uring: When and How to use it
io_uring hype hits Postgres: 14% faster, author AMA, and pedants nitpick the fine print
TLDR: Researchers show Linux’s io_uring—an async way to batch reads/writes—can boost databases, with PostgreSQL seeing about 14% faster results when used correctly. Comments celebrate the clarity, link a short summary, and spark pedant drama over “malloc,” echoing the big lesson: it’s powerful, but not a drop‑in replacement.
Move over buzzwords: the Linux “io_uring” is the new way databases read and write stuff fast by batching requests instead of waiting one-by-one. The paper shows it’s not a magic button—used right, it gave PostgreSQL about a 14% speed boost. The crowd went full popcorn mode when the author (melhindi) dropped in with “Happy to take questions,” and fans cheered that this might be the most easy-to-follow write‑up yet. Another user offered a short summary for speed‑readers, because hey, asynchronous everything includes reading, too.
Then came the nerd drama. One commenter fired the pedant cannon: “malloc is not a system call,” turning a calm thread into a semantics showdown. Supporters praised the “not a drop‑in replacement” lesson—io_uring shines when you redesign for it, especially for storage-heavy buffers and high‑speed data shuffles. Others giggled at terms like IOPOLL and SQPOLL (tech-speak for “poll devices directly instead of waiting on interrupts”), joking that registered buffers sounded like “VIP memory seating.” In short: serious performance tips with just enough spicy nitpicks, memes, and victory laps to keep the ring spinning. The big takeaway: use it thoughtfully, follow the guidelines, and your database party gets faster without inviting chaos or unnecessary complexity, for real.
Key Points
- •io_uring is an asynchronous Linux I/O interface that batches system calls and unifies storage and network operations.
- •Naively replacing traditional I/O with io_uring does not guarantee performance benefits; careful integration is required.
- •The study evaluates io_uring in two cases: a storage-bound buffer manager and network-bound analytical data shuffling.
- •Advanced features such as registered buffers and passthrough I/O are analyzed for their end-to-end performance effects.
- •Guidelines derived from the study yield a 14% performance gain when applied to PostgreSQL’s recent io_uring integration.