Re: Your opinion on a http accelerator

jb@dslreports.com wrote:

> This misses one point - with a pre-forking httpd, and dynamic content
> generated with buried interpreters and pre-byte compiled modules,
> such as php or modperl, an accelerator allows the child httpd to
> write at full speed then become free for another request.

Apache+mod_perl certainly does not classify as a fast or efficient web
server. However squid will only read-ahead 16 kb (READ_AHEAD_GAP in
defines.h), but few replies will be in that size I guess.

pre-forking has not so much to do with it, forking with large per-thread
data state and not handling new connections while the old one is
lingering for close has.

Squid also helps by multiplexing several client onto a single persistent
connection, thereby reducing the number of Apache "threads" required.

> modperl this is absolutely critical given that one httpd can easily
> exceed 10mb of non-shared memory.

True. Thats why you should preload as much as possible of the modules
used, and not handle too many connections with a single mod_perl thread.

--
Henrik Nordstrom
Squid hacker