Compression

The preferred method for configuring message compression on both clients and servers is to use encoding.RegisterCompressor to register an implementation of a compression algorithm. See grpc/encoding/gzip/gzip.go for an example of how to implement one.

Once a compressor has been registered on the client-side, RPCs may be sent using it via the UseCompressor CallOption. Remember that CallOptions may be turned into defaults for all calls from a ClientConn by using the WithDefaultCallOptions DialOption. If UseCompressor is used and the corresponding compressor has not been installed, an Internal error will be returned to the application before the RPC is sent.

Server-side, registered compressors will be used automatically to decode request messages and encode the responses. Servers currently always respond using the same compression method specified by the client. If the corresponding compressor has not been registered, an Unimplemented status will be returned to the client.

Deprecated API

There is a deprecated API for setting compression as well. It is not recommended for use. However, if you were previously using it, the following section may be helpful in understanding how it works in combination with the new API.

Client-Side

There are two legacy functions and one new function to configure compression:

func WithCompressor(grpc.Compressor) DialOption {}
func WithDecompressor(grpc.Decompressor) DialOption {}
func UseCompressor(name) CallOption {}

For outgoing requests, the following rules are applied in order:

1. If UseCompressor is used, messages will be compressed using the compressor named.
   • If the compressor named is not registered, an Internal error is returned back to the client before sending the RPC.
   • If UseCompressor("identity"), no compressor will be used, but "identity" will be sent in the header to the server.
2. If WithCompressor is used, messages will be compressed using that compressor implementation.
3. Otherwise, outbound messages will be uncompressed.

For incoming responses, the following rules are applied in order:

1. If WithDecompressor is used and it matches the message's encoding, it will be used.
2. If a registered compressor matches the response's encoding, it will be used.
3. Otherwise, the stream will be closed and an Unimplemented status error will be returned to the application.

Server-Side

There are two legacy functions to configure compression:

func RPCCompressor(grpc.Compressor) ServerOption {}
func RPCDecompressor(grpc.Decompressor) ServerOption {}

For incoming requests, the following rules are applied in order:

1. If RPCDecompressor is used and that decompressor matches the request's encoding: it will be used.
2. If a registered compressor matches the request's encoding, it will be used.
3. Otherwise, an Unimplemented status will be returned to the client.

For outgoing responses, the following rules are applied in order:

1. If RPCCompressor is used, that compressor will be used to compress all response messages.
2. If compression was used for the incoming request and a registered compressor supports it, that same compression method will be used for the outgoing response.
3. Otherwise, no compression will be used for the outgoing response.