PostgreSQL UNIX domain sockets vs TCP sockets

I wonder if the UNIX domain socket connections with postgresql are faster then tcp connections from localhost in high concurrency rate and if it does, by how much?

Solution 1:

Postgres core developer Bruce Momjian has blogged about this topic. Momjian states, "Unix-domain socket communication is measurably faster." He measured query network performance showing that the local domain socket was 33% faster than using the TCP/IP stack.

Solution 2:

UNIX domain sockets should offer better performance than TCP sockets over loopback interface (less copying of data, fewer context switches), but I don't know whether the performance increase can be demonstrated with PostgreSQL.

I found a small comparison on the FreeBSD mailinglist: http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-performance/2005-February/001143.html.

Solution 3:

I believe that UNIX domain sockets in theory give better throughput than TCP sockets on the loopback interface, but in practice the difference is probably negligible.

Data carried over UNIX domain sockets don't have to go up and down through the IP stack layers.

re: Alexander's answer. AFAIK you shouldn't get any more than one context switch or data copy in each direction (i.e. for each read() or write()), hence why I believe the difference will be negligble. The IP stack doesn't need to copy the packet as it moves between layers, but it does have to manipulate internal data structures to add and remove higher-layer packet headers.