Whoops! I Rewrote it in Rust
Explore a conference talk that delves into the journey of rewriting Pelikan, Twitter's open-source caching framework, in Rust. Learn how three engineers progressively integrated Rust into a C codebase, starting with replacing the server's networking and event loop. Discover the challenges and benefits of this transition, including performance comparisons, implementation of new features like TLS support, and the creation of a Rust-based storage library. Gain insights into the process of performance testing, addressing throughput and latency issues, and leveraging Rust tooling for microbenchmarking. Understand the implementation of new features such as efficient TTL sorting and PMEM support. Examine the costs and benefits of rewriting, including potential missed deadlines and duplicated work, balanced against the exciting future possibilities for Pelikan with Rust. This talk provides valuable lessons for engineers considering similar rewrites and showcases the potential of Rust in high-performance, critical infrastructure projects. Read more