Subject: ANNOUNCE: Apache/Perl modules
From: Doug MacEachern <[email-masked]>
Date: 18 May 1996 18:04:27 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl.announce,comp.lang.perl.misc

This is an alpha release of Apache/Perl modules that will speed up 
your perl-based WWW applications.  
This release is for *testing* of these modules, 
they are not considered stable enough for a production environment 
yet.  
The interface may change, possibly based on feedback from 
those who are testing.

For more information see:
http://www.osf.org/~dougm/apache/

For the package itself:
http://www.osf.org/~dougm/apache/mod_perl-0.60a1.tar.gz

It will also be made availible on CPAN:
http://www.perl.com/CPAN

and the apache module registry: 
http://www.zyzzyva.com/server/module_registry/

>From the README:

---

These are Apache modules that embed a perl interpreter 
in the HTTP server.  
The benefit of this is that we are able to
run scripts without going through the expensive 
(fork/exec/parameter passing/parsing, etc.) CGI interface.  
The scripts will run faster and they have direct access 
to the C API of the server.

The current approach of mod_perl is to allocate and 
construct a new perl interpreter for each request.  
The interpreter will then parse and run a perl script and we
finally destruct the perl interpreter in order to free memory 
consumed.  

The current approach of mod_perl_fast is to allocate and contruct 
one perl interpreter when the server starts.  At the same time, 
load, parse and run one perl script, which may pull 
in other perl code such as your favorite modules.
This also allows you to initiate persistent connections 
such as to a database server.
Then, a subroutine in memory is called to handle each request.
The interpreter is destroyed upon restart or shutdown of the 
server.

---

Comments and questions are welcome and encouraged.

Enjoy,

-Doug