After a deeper discussion with friends in the Slack #cpp channel, we reached the following consensus: • iceberg-rust won't maintain any c/cpp related code. • iceberg-cpp will have an internal crate based on iceberg-rust and invokes cxx/cbingen to build bindings • And finally, we will have a `libiceberg-api` and `libiceberg-cpp` ,`libicberg-rust` in the iceberg-cpp repo. In which, iceberg-cpp will provide:
- `libiceberg-api` : An headers that defines APIs available to users. - `libiceberg-cpp` : An impl of libiceberg-api based on pure cpp (based on nanoarrow, json, libz and so on) - `libicberg-rust` : An impl of libiceberg-api based on iceberg-rust. What do you think? On Tue, Mar 18, 2025, at 16:56, Fokko Driesprong wrote: > Hi Xuanwo, > > Thanks for bringing this up. I'm not a cpp expert, but following this with > great interest. I think this is a very promising approach since the memory > model is already the same across projects (Arrow). > > Kind regards, > Fokko > > Op vr 14 mrt 2025 om 08:53 schreef Xuanwo <xua...@apache.org>: >> __ >> Hi, everyone >> >> Today, Renjie Liu and I had a discussion with some of the iceberg-cpp >> contributors—Gang Wu, Junwang Zhao, and David Li—about ways to advance the >> project. We came up with some great ideas, so I'm sharing them here to >> gather more feedback. >> >> ## Background >> >> The community continues to show interest in a C++ implementation of Iceberg. >> Some users are interested in C++ bindings with a well-designed API for data >> types and manifests, but they have their own runtime and I/O, so they prefer >> a binding that exclude these components. However, there are also users who >> require an all-in-one solution. >> >> The iceberg-cpp project aims to provide a well-designed interface for users >> to plug in file I/O, readers, writers, and other components while offering a >> default implementation in other modules. >> >> Luckily, we now have iceberg-rust, which is not fully feature-complete but >> undergoing rapid development. We can develop a C++ binding based on >> iceberg-rust and establish a robust C++ API within the iceberg-cpp project. >> The C++ project will define public interfaces and offer various build >> targets for users to choose from. The overall process will be similar to how >> pyiceberg interacts with iceberg-rust. >> >> ## Plan >> >> >> 1. Use cxx[^1] to build cpp bindings for iceberg-rust which exposes core >> APIs. >> >> >> The binding will support different build profiles that users can choose to >> use fileio from iceberg-rust or not. >> >> 2. iceberg-cpp will define public interfaces and types for cpp users. >> >> After this separation, iceberg-rust can focus on implementing features and >> exposing them through simpler, more direct bindings. Meanwhile, iceberg-cpp >> will be responsible for designing, testing, and maintaining the user-level >> APIs, allowing users to select the parts they need or plug in their own file >> I/O components. >> >> ## Conclusion >> >> We believe this design combines the best parts of two projects and helps us >> iterate iceberg-cpp more quickly. >> >> Welcome to leave your comments here! >> >> [^1]: https://cxx.rs/ >> >> Xuanwo >> >> https://xuanwo.io/ Xuanwo https://xuanwo.io/
