pg-noop

A NoOp PostgreSQL server — a black hole for benchmark tools.

Speaks the full PostgreSQL wire protocol (simple query, extended query, COPY), accepts connections from any driver, and discards everything. Returns mechanically valid but empty responses. The goal is to saturate benchmark tools and measure their maximum theoretical throughput without a real database in the way.

Install

One-line installer (Linux x86-64 / ARM64, macOS):

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/stroppy-io/pg-noop/releases/latest/download/pg-noop-installer.sh | sh

Direct download (static Linux binary, no dependencies):

wget https://github.com/stroppy-io/pg-noop/releases/latest/download/pgnoop-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz
tar xf pgnoop-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz
./pgnoop --help

Build

Regular build:

cargo build --release
# binary: target/release/pgnoop

Static binary (portable, no glibc dependency):

# One-time setup
sudo dnf install musl-gcc musl-libc-static   # Fedora/RHEL
# sudo apt install musl-tools                # Debian/Ubuntu
rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl

cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
# binary: target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/pgnoop

Uses jemalloc instead of musl's default allocator to recover the performance lost in a musl build. The static binary can be scp'd to any x86-64 Linux server and run directly.

Configuration

Parameters are resolved in order: CLI flag → environment variable → pgnoop.json → default.

Parameter	CLI flag	Environment variable	Default
Bind host	--host	PGNOOP_HOST	0.0.0.0
Port	--port	PGNOOP_PORT	5432
Worker threads	--workers	PGNOOP_WORKERS	number of logical CPUs
Config file path	--config	PGNOOP_CONFIG	./pgnoop.json

pgnoop.json example:

{
  "host": "0.0.0.0",
  "port": 5432,
  "workers": 16
}

Usage

# Default: listen on 0.0.0.0:5432, one thread per CPU
./pgnoop

# Custom port and thread count
./pgnoop --port 15432 --workers 8

# Via environment
PGNOOP_PORT=15432 PGNOOP_WORKERS=8 ./pgnoop

# Connect with psql
psql -h 127.0.0.1 -p 5432 -U any_user

Protocol support

Statement	Response
SELECT / WITH / TABLE / VALUES	Empty result set (0 rows)
INSERT	INSERT 0 0
UPDATE	UPDATE 0
DELETE	DELETE 0
BEGIN / COMMIT / ROLLBACK	Correct transaction tags
COPY … FROM STDIN	Accepts and discards all data
COPY … TO STDOUT	Empty stream
Everything else	OK

Both simple query (psql) and extended query (pgx, psycopg3, JDBC, etc.) protocols are supported. No authentication — all connections are accepted.

Wire protocol handling is provided by pgwire, a Rust implementation of the PostgreSQL frontend/backend protocol (crates.io · docs.rs).