Version 2.4.1
Compression

WiredTiger includes a number of optional compression techniques. Configuring compression generally decreases on-disk and in-memory resource requirements and the amount of I/O, and increases CPU cost when rows are read and written.

Configuring compression may change application throughput. For example, in applications using solid-state drives (where I/O is less expensive), turning off compression may increase application performance by reducing CPU costs; in applications where I/O costs are more expensive, turning on compression may increase application performance by reducing the overall number of I/O operations.

An example of turning on row-store key prefix compression:

ret = session->create(session, "table:mytable",
"key_format=S,value_format=S,prefix_compression=true");

An example of turning on row-store or column-store dictionary compression:

ret = session->create(session, "table:mytable",
"key_format=S,value_format=S,dictionary=1000");

See File formats and compression for more information on available compression techniques.