Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Is Apache 2.0 Worth the Switch for PHP?

Posted by michael on from the play-nicely-children dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It seems like some of the members of the Apache Software Foundation are a little angry with the PHP Community because they don't recommend using Apache 2.0 with PHP. Since PHP is installed on half of all Apache servers this is a major issue for them. A number of high-profile PHP community members such as John Coggeshall and Chris Shiflett have blogged about this decision in light of a recent posting by Apache Software Foundation Member Rich Bowen which called PHP's anti-Apache2 stance FUD. Is there any real reason for the PHP community to start recommending Apache 2.0, especially when the 1.3.x series of Apache is rock solid and proven? Note Rich did later commend PHP for being a great product, so it's not all flames."

4 of 465 comments (clear)

  1. PHP used to be an ASF project by gtrubetskoy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I should probably be noted that PHP used to be an official Apache Software Foundation project until it was mutually agreed to end this relationship. I have no clue as to what the underlying reasons were and as an ASF member myself would rather not speculate on this. See ASF Board Meeting Minutes for Feb 2004 (section 5.G).

    P.S. Apache 2.0 is great and there is no reason not to use it IMO.

  2. It's a threading issue by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Either PHP itself, or many PHP applications, are not written to deal with the multi-threading offered by Apache 2.0 . So, it seems, you will do best if you install one of the less optimal threading models. And then you lose much of the benefit of Apache 2.

    Apache 2 and a recent Linux kernel come pretty close to the theoretical limits of the hardware when it comes to serving static content. It just loafs along while saturating whatever net connection you give it. It's worth trying out.

    Bruce

    --
    Bruce Perens.
  3. No need to switch ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I run a FreeBSD server with Apache 1.3.33 and PHP 4.3.10. When I was upgrading it a week or two ago to FreeBSD 5.3, I thought about making the switch to Apache 2.0. But then I thought ... What is that going to bring me?

    Apache 1.3 has been working flawlessly for me. Until I have a compelling need to switch to Apache 2.0, I'm not going to. I understand that there are some nifty new features in Apache 2.0, but not a single one of them is something that I want/need.

    This, I think, is the primary reason why people aren't going to Apache 2.0 in droves, not the PHP team's "FUD".

  4. Apache Tweak. by DarkHelmet · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I've been running Apache 2.0 for the past year or so, without any problems whatsoever.

    The problem is running apache in WORKER or PERCHILD MPM modes. Those are the ones that are using threading.

    What I'd recommend to anyone who wants to have a robust, fast apache implementation is to do the following:

    • Setup a version of Apache on port 80 that runs worker MPM. Use this version for serving images and html files.
    • Setup a separate version of apache (port 9000 or whatever) on prefork that runs all CGI / PHP based stuff.
    • Proxy requests matching PHP / CGI / etc to the port 9000 version of apache.

    There you go... performance increase for 75% of serving requests.

    P.S: Avoid perchild at all costs!

    --
    /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i