# Postgres question **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [February 3, 2006, 11:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/postgres-question/53401 "2006-02-03T23:03:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Colin\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Colin\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Colin_F)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 11:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/postgres-question/53401/1 "2006-02-03T23:03:28Z")
What are the practical differences between using postgres and postgres-pr to connect rails to a postgres database? I realize the -pr version is pure ruby, while the other is a set of c bindings, but, does that result in performance, reliability, or feature differences? Any information appreciated. Colin F. ---
**Author:** ![Colin\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Colin\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Colin_F)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 1:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/postgres-question/53401/2 "2006-02-04T01:12:32Z")
Colin F. wrote: > What are the practical differences between using postgres and > postgres-pr to > connect rails to a postgres database? > > I realize the -pr version is pure ruby, while the other is a set of c > bindings, but, does that result in performance, reliability, or feature > differences? > > Any information appreciated. > > Colin F. I didn’t have much luck with the C version on my OSX Tiger ibook. But maybe that was just something I wasn’t doing right. -pr worked out of the box and for dev purposes, it seems ok. I have not used these two side by side, but just knowing that one is written in C, I would expect it to give a little better performance (if not markedly improved performance). Can’t really comment one reliability & feature diffs. regards, -Amr ---
**Author:** ![Colin\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Colin\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Colin_F)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/postgres-question/53401/3 "2006-02-04T01:29:46Z")
Amr M. wrote: > > Any information appreciated. > > > > Colin F. > > I didn’t have much luck with the C version on my OSX Tiger ibook. But > maybe that was just something I wasn’t doing right. -pr worked out of > the box and for dev purposes, it seems ok. To this point, I’ve used the Fink and DarwinPorts C bindings on my project just fine on Tiger. My rake check suite passes just the same with Linux as with OS X. Regards, Blair – Blair Z., Ph.D. CTO, OrcaWare Technologies [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) Subversion training, consulting and support [http://www.orcaware.com/svn/](http://www.orcaware.com/svn/) ---
**Author:** ![Colin\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Colin\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Colin_F)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 3:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/postgres-question/53401/4 "2006-02-04T03:28:05Z")
On Fri, 2006-02-03 at 17:02 -0500, Colin F. wrote: > I realize the -pr version is pure ruby, while the other is a set of c > bindings, but, does that result in performance, reliability, or > feature > differences? > From my experience… it’s _worth_ the few extra steps to get the C > bindings working. 🙂 Robby – /\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* - Robby R., Founder & Executive Director \* - PLANET ARGON, LLC | [www.planetargon.com](http://www.planetargon.com) \* - Ruby on Rails Development, Consulting, and Hosting \* - Portland, Oregon | p: 503.351.4730 | f: 815.642.4068 \* - blog: [www.robbyonrails.com](http://www.robbyonrails.com) | book: [www.programmingrails.com](http://www.programmingrails.com) \* \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*/ ---
**Author:** ![Colin\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Colin\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Colin_F)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 7:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/postgres-question/53401/5 "2006-02-04T07:41:31Z")
> From my experience… it’s _worth_ the few extra steps to get the C > bindings working. 🙂 Robby, why do you say that? Blair and Amr seem to think that the -pr versions are fine… but, in a slightly misdirected posting to the Ruby mailing list some time ago, I got a response very similar to yours. But, that’s why I asked the question of which is better… some specific examples, knowledge of what causes differences in behavior, and maybe some pointers to locations in the code that cause that behavior would go a long way towards helping us all figure out what the real differences here are, and how they’d affect systems under development. Just to throw my $0.02 in, I’m using the postgres-pr version, with postgres 8, and it’s working fine… if there are compelling reasons to switch though, which seem to be darkly hinted at, I’d rather do it now than later. Colin ---
**Author:** ![Colin\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Colin\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Colin_F)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/postgres-question/53401/6 "2006-02-04T17:19:43Z")
On Sat, Feb 04, 2006 at 12:57:02AM -0500, Colin F. wrote: } \> From my experience… it’s _worth_ the few extra steps to get the C } \> bindings working. 🙂 } } Robby, why do you say that? } } Blair and Amr seem to think that the -pr versions are fine… but, in a } slightly misdirected posting to the Ruby mailing list some time ago, I } got a response very similar to yours. } } But, that’s why I asked the question of which is better… some specific } examples, knowledge of what causes differences in behavior, and maybe } some pointers to locations in the code that cause that behavior would go } a long way towards helping us all figure out what the real differences } here are, and how they’d affect systems under development. } } Just to throw my $0.02 in, I’m using the postgres-pr version, with } postgres 8, and it’s working fine… if there are compelling reasons to } switch though, which seem to be darkly hinted at, I’d rather do it now } than later. So it seems to me that it very much depends on your development platform and your deployment platform. For me, both are Debian and it’s dead easy to set up the C bindings (apt-get install libdbd-pg-ruby); it doesn’t even involve a gem install. For platforms with less complete package management systems (_cough_ Windows _cough_), it’s easier to use gem for package management, and the -pr version doesn’t require any work other than the gem install. When it comes to deployment, you probably want the extra performance of the C bindings, so you may want to get that working on your deployment platform even if you don’t bother for your development platform. Then again, the only good reason to optimize (and the C bindings are an optimization, make no mistake) is because you have a performance bottleneck; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and the only way to tell is by monitoring real-life (or simulated) performance. } Colin –Greg ---
**Author:** ![Colin\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Colin\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Colin_F)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 3:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/postgres-question/53401/7 "2006-02-04T03:19:00Z")
On 2/3/06, Colin F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > What are the practical differences between using postgres and postgres-pr to > connect rails to a postgres database? > > I realize the -pr version is pure ruby, while the other is a set of c > bindings, but, does that result in performance, reliability, or feature > differences? > > Any information appreciated. I haven’t run into any trouble with the postgres-pr driver, except that not all of the ActiveRecord unit tests pass. I haven’t had time to really investigate deeply, but I’d imagine that this means that certain features are missing.