diff --git a/infer/src/base/SourceFile.ml b/infer/src/base/SourceFile.ml
index 21d15abb7..9b1cbd0f1 100644
--- a/infer/src/base/SourceFile.ml
+++ b/infer/src/base/SourceFile.ml
@@ -139,24 +139,33 @@ let changed_sources_from_changed_files changed_files =
 
 
 module SQLite = struct
-  module T = struct
-    type nonrec t = t
-  end
+  type nonrec t = t
 
-  module Serializer = SqliteUtils.MarshalledDataForComparison (T)
-  include T
+  let invalid_tag = 'I'
 
-  let serialize = function
-    | RelativeProjectRoot path ->
-        (* show the most common paths as text (for debugging, possibly perf) *)
-        Sqlite3.Data.TEXT path
-    | _ as x ->
-        Serializer.serialize x
+  let absolute_tag = 'A'
 
+  let relative_tag = 'R'
 
-  let deserialize = function
-    | Sqlite3.Data.TEXT rel_path ->
-        RelativeProjectRoot rel_path
-    | blob ->
-        Serializer.deserialize blob
+  let serialize sourcefile =
+    let tag_text tag str = Sqlite3.Data.TEXT (Printf.sprintf "%c%s" tag str) in
+    match sourcefile with
+    | Invalid {ml_source_file} ->
+        tag_text invalid_tag ml_source_file
+    | Absolute abs_path ->
+        tag_text absolute_tag abs_path
+    | RelativeProjectRoot rel_path ->
+        tag_text relative_tag rel_path
+
+
+  let deserialize serialized_sourcefile =
+    let[@warning "-8"] (Sqlite3.Data.TEXT text) = serialized_sourcefile in
+    if String.is_empty text then
+      L.die InternalError "Could not deserialize sourcefile with empty representation@." ;
+    let tag = text.[0] in
+    let str = String.sub ~pos:1 ~len:(String.length text - 1) text in
+    if Char.equal tag invalid_tag then Invalid {ml_source_file= str}
+    else if Char.equal tag absolute_tag then Absolute str
+    else if Char.equal tag relative_tag then RelativeProjectRoot str
+    else L.die InternalError "Could not deserialize sourcefile with tag=%c, str= %s@." tag str
 end
diff --git a/infer/src/base/SqliteUtils.ml b/infer/src/base/SqliteUtils.ml
index f3bce1aed..bac9a564e 100644
--- a/infer/src/base/SqliteUtils.ml
+++ b/infer/src/base/SqliteUtils.ml
@@ -101,20 +101,6 @@ module type T = sig
   type t
 end
 
-module MarshalledDataForComparison (D : T) = struct
-  type t = D.t
-
-  let deserialize = function[@warning "-8"] Sqlite3.Data.BLOB b -> Marshal.from_string b 0
-
-  (*
-    If the serialized data is used for comparison (e.g. used in WHERE clause), we need to normalize it.
-    Marshalling is brittle as it depends on sharing.
-
-    For now let's suppose that marshalling with no sharing is normalizing.
-  *)
-  let serialize x = Sqlite3.Data.BLOB (Marshal.to_string x [Marshal.No_sharing])
-end
-
 module MarshalledDataNOTForComparison (D : T) = struct
   type t = D.t
 
diff --git a/infer/src/base/SqliteUtils.mli b/infer/src/base/SqliteUtils.mli
index b18ed5e29..74f4782a4 100644
--- a/infer/src/base/SqliteUtils.mli
+++ b/infer/src/base/SqliteUtils.mli
@@ -69,12 +69,6 @@ module type Data = sig
   val deserialize : Sqlite3.Data.t -> t
 end
 
-(** A default implementation of the Data API that encodes every objects as marshalled blobs with no
-    sharing *)
-module MarshalledDataForComparison (D : sig
-  type t
-end) : Data with type t = D.t
-
 (** A default implementation of the Data API that encodes every objects as marshalled blobs *)
 module MarshalledDataNOTForComparison (D : sig
   type t