NYCPHP Meetup

[Chris Shiflett]

--- Scott Mattocks <crisscott at netzero.com> wrote:
> We will be switching over to a new server that is going to be running 
> Apache 2.0.46. Our current system runs Apache 1.3.something with PHP 
> 4.3.2. When Apache 2.0 first came out I heard a lot of people saying 
> not to run it if you are using PHP but I can't remember why. Are there 
> still issues mixing the two?

I had dinner with Rasmus last night and brought this specific topic up. I
can't say that I've ever been entirely clear on it all, especially since
mod_perl 2.0 has plenty of third-party modules and such that aren't thread
safe. But, since he has always been the person warning against Apache 2
the most, I figured he was the best person to talk to. It was also
convenient, because 2 of the 3 core mod_perl developers were there as
well, so I sparked a good conversation and basically sat back and
listened. :-)

Apache 2 is fine in pre-fork mode is what I got out of it. Rasmus just
isn't a big fan of using software until it has been around for a very long
time, but my opinion is that Apache 2 is working well for a lot of very
important sites, including Ticketmaster (those guys had some crazy stories
about server load when a big show goes on sale). But, he did admit that
using the pre-fork MPM eliminated the threading issues as well as pretty
much all of his complaints.

Nat Torkington came to the same conclusion, as mentioned in his journal
(http://use.perl.org/~gnat/journal/15902).

So, I'm going to start telling people that Apache 2 is fine as long as you
use the pre-fork MPM or you're sure that all third-party modules you use
are thread safe.

Chris

=====
Chris Shiflett - http://shiflett.org/

PHP Security Handbook
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