[cgiapp] how to use C::A::Dispatch with FastCGI ?

[Ron Savage]

On Sat, 2008-02-23 at 10:01 -0700, Mark Fuller wrote:

Hi Mark

I see Michael Peters has already replied, and he know a great deal more
that I do about these topics. Nevertheless, a few comments follow...

> This might be better asked on Perlmonks, but do you have a feel for
> how widely used is fastcgi? I got the impression it's not because the

I have no idea how widely FastCGI is used, although I occassionally see
references to it (still being used). I tried it because I'd heard about
it and because I wanted to familiarize myself with
yet-another-way-of-doing-things.

> CPAN module isn't easy to find. Searching CPAN for "fcgi" returns a
> catalyst module (MojoMojo with a ridiculous version number) instead of
> the real FCGI module[1]. The module hasn't been updated since 2002.

Curious. Still, reliable (software) technology doesn't have to be
updated. This topic blew up - on this list - a couple of years ago, and
I responded /very/ briefly with a comment about Perl on Prozac, because
I got the distinct impression the OP was under pressure to fabricate the
false impression of the introduction of new software technology into the
marketplace by artifically creating new versions, or new names for old
packages, in order to give their employer a false but perceived
advantage (in the market). But things like CGI, HTML, HTTP, TCP/IP etc
don't need constant updating. We rely of them precisely because they can
be relied upon (which sounds like a circular argument, but then the
traffic flow from web client to web server and back is circular too!).

> Have you looked at any other persistence tools? I've seen references
> to speedyCGI (aka persistentPerl) and pperl (CPAN module). But, I get

Yes. IIRC I downloaded SpeedyCGI but could not compile it due to syntax
errors. In such a situation I immediately wrote it off, and that because
there are such good and working alternatives - FastCGI and mod_perl.

Note: These latter 2 technologies do not - to my way of thinking -
address the same issues, so I don't see them completing with each other.
Nevertheless they can have the same effect (as each other) by vastly
speeding up execution times by caching compiled code.

> the impression they're not widely used because they haven't been
> updated in awhile. (2003 and 2004 respectively.). I couldn't compile
> speedyCGI. (But, I noticed Ubuntu 7.10 has an installable module in
> its repository.). I haven't tried pperl yet. It looks like it was
> created because the author couldn't compile SpeedyCGI either.

Ubuntu - ha, ha, ha. 

Last year I installed FreeBSD twice, Ubuntu several times, Debian
several times, (and OpenBSD several years ago), in order to choose what
to abandon Windows in favour of. To say Ubuntu was a fucking shambles
would be to glorify it. I posted a very long explanation on the Ubuntu
forum's installation survey at the time. I chose Debian. Case closed.

> I'm just trying to understand what's commonly used. I feel like I'm
> missing something because I've heard it's desirable to use something
> other than mod_perl because 1) it's a bad idea to run Perl within the
> web server, and 2) web hosters may not make it available. But, looking
> around, looking around it's not clear to me what people are using.

Besides Michael's reply I can add:

o Re Apache's internal processing steps in constructing it's reply:
mod_perl offers the extreme example of allowing the programmer to
intervene in those steps. Hence it's the definitive tool if intervention
is appropriate. But is it always? Of course not. That's when FastCGI is
a reasonable alternative. My preference, however, is that since mod_perl
offers so much, there's no real need to use FastCGI at all. Even so, I'm
curious enough about FastCGI to study it, albeit briefly, so I can write
a little demo to satisfy myself, and then move up to mod_perl
permanently

o Yep, I decided, recently, to get a dedicated server too, although I
haven't actually done that yet. Bandwagons R Us! The other prompt was a
recent offer from my web hosting company (QuadraHosting via their
Australian office - recommended), of new shared and dedicated server
products. They run Centros as their OS, and call these services VPS:
Virtual Private Server. See:
http://www.quadrahosting.com.au/vps/linux-vps.html
for what we pay over here (shudder)

HTH.
-- 
Ron Savage
ron at savage.net.au
http://savage.net.au/index.html