Modifying Your Scripts to Run Under mod_perl (Apache: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition)

17.4. Modifying Your Scripts to Run Under mod_perl

Many scripts that will run under mod_cgi will run under mod_perl using Apache::PerlRun in the Config file. This in itself speeds things up because Perl does not have to reload for each call; scripts that have been tidied up or written especially will run even better under Apache::Registry.

You may want to experiment with different Config files and scripts. If you are running under Apache::Registry, you will have to restart Apache to reload the script.