[cgiapp] mod_perl vs. FastCGI

[Perrin Harkins]

On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 11:57 AM, fREW Schmidt <frioux at gmail.com> wrote:
> The main issues I have with mod_perl is that even with Apache2::Reload
> I still get errors and have to restart the server while I am
> developing.

Pity the Java guys.  It can take 5 minutes or more to restart IBM's
EJB dev environment.  Most mod_perl servers restart in less than 5
seconds.

However, if that still seems like too long, and your code is too
tricky for Apache2::Reload, there are two simple solutions.  One is to
develop under CGI, which should be easy for most CGI::App users.  Then
you just switch over to mod_perl when you're ready for testing.

Another is to set MaxRequestsPerChild to 1, so that your code is
compiled fresh every time.  If you do this, make sure you don't load
the code you're editing in your startup.pl (before the fork).

> I also like the idea that with FastCGI we can switch back to IIS.

Can't say I agree with you there, but to each their own.  However, I
would caution you that when I tried to find an IIS FastCGI solution a
few years ago, there was really nothing available.  That may have
changed since Ruby increased the popularity of FastCGI.

- Perrin