Chapter 24. mod_perl 2.0: Installation and Configuration
Since Doug MacEachern introduced mod_perl 1.0[58] in 1996, he has
had to tweak it with every change in Apache and Perl, while
maintaining compatibility with the older versions. These rewrites
have led to very complex source code, with hundreds of
#ifdefs and workarounds for various
incompatibilities in older Perl and Apache versions. [58]Here
and in the rest of this and the next chapter we refer to the mod_perl
1.x series as mod_perl 1.0 and to 2.0.x as mod_perl 2.0 to keep
things simple. Similarly, we call the Apache 1.3.x series Apache 1.3
and the 2.0.x series Apache 2.0.
Apache 2.0, however, is based on a new threads design, requiring that
mod_perl be based on a thread-safe Perl interpreter. Perl 5.6.0 was
the first Perl version to support internal thread-safety across
multiple interpreters. Since Perl 5.6.0 and Apache 2.0 are the very
minimum requirements for the newest version of mod_perl, backward
compatibility was no longer a concern, so this seemed like a good
time to start from scratch. mod_perl 2.0 was the result: a leaner,
more efficient mod_perl that's streamlined for
Apache 2.0. mod_perl 2.0 includes a mechanism for building the Perl interface to
the Apache API automatically, allowing us to easily adjust mod_perl
2.0 to the ever-changing Apache 2.0 API during its development
period. Another important feature is the
Apache::Test framework, which was originally
developed for mod_perl 2.0 but then was adopted by Apache 2.0
developers to test the core server features and third-party modules.
Moreover the tests written using the Apache::Test
framework could be run with Apache 1.0 and 2.0, assuming that both
supported the same features. Many other interesting changes have already happened to mod_perl in
Version 2.0, and more will be developed in the future. Some of these
will be covered in this chapter, and some you will discover on your
own while reading mod_perl documentation. At the time of this writing, mod_perl 2.0 is considered beta when
used with the prefork Multi-Processing Model
module (MPM) and alpha when used with a threaded MPM. It is likely
that Perl 5.8.0+ will be required for mod_perl 2.0 to move past alpha
with threaded MPMs. Also, the Apache 2.0 API hasn't
yet been finalized, so it's possible that certain
examples in this chapter may require modifications once production
versions of Apache 2.0 and mod_perl 2.0 are released. In this chapter, we'll first discuss the new
features in Apache 2.0, Perl 5.6 and later, and mod_perl 2.0 (in that
order). Then we'll cover the installation and
configuration of mod_perl 2.0. Details on the new functionality
implemented in mod_perl 2.0 are provided in Chapter 25.
24.1. What's New in Apache 2.0
Whereas Apache 1.2 and 1.3 were based on the NCSA
httpd code base, Apache 2.0 rewrote big chunks
of the 1.3 code base, mainly to support numerous new features and
enhancements. Here are the most important new features:
- Apache Portable Runtime (APR)
-
The APR presents a standard API for writing portable
client and server applications, covering file I/O, logging, shared
memory, threads, managing child processes, and many other
functionalities needed for developing the Apache core and third-party
modules in a portable and efficient way. One important effect is that
it significantly simplifies the code that uses the APR, making it
much easier to review and understand the Apache code, and increasing
the number of revealed bugs and contributed patches.
The APR uses the concept of memory pools, which significantly
simplifies the memory-management code and reduces the possibility of
memory leaks (which always haunt C programmers).
- I/O filtering
-
Apache 2.0 allows multiple
modules to filter both the request and the
response. Now one module can pipe its output to another module as if
it were being sent directly from the TCP stream. The same mechanism
works with the generated response.
With I/O filtering in place, simple filters (e.g., data compression
and decompression) can easily be implemented, and complex filters
(e.g., SSL) can now be implemented without needing to modify the the
server code (unlike with Apache 1.3).
To make the filtering mechanism efficient and avoid unnecessary
copying, the bucket brigades model was used, as
follows.
A bucket represents a chunk of data. Buckets linked together comprise
a brigade. Each bucket in a brigade can be modified, removed, and
replaced with another bucket. The goal is to minimize the data
copying where possible. Buckets come in different types: files, data
blocks, end-of-stream indicators, pools, etc. You
don't need to know anything about the internal
representation of a bucket in order to manipulate it.
The stream of data is represented by bucket brigades. When a filter
is called, it gets passed the brigade that was the output of the
previous filter. This brigade is then manipulated by the filter
(e.g., by modifying some buckets) and passed to the next filter in
the stack.
Figure 24-1 depicts an imaginary bucket brigade. The
figure shows that after the presented bucket brigade has passed
through several filters, some buckets were removed, some were
modified, and some were added. Of course, the handler that gets the
brigade doesn't know the history of the brigade; it
can only see the existing buckets in the brigade. We will see bucket
brigades in use when discussing protocol handlers and filters.
- Multi-Processing Model modules (MPMs)
-
In the previous Apache generation, the
same code base was trying to manage incoming requests for different
platforms, which led to scalability problems on certain (mostly
non-Unix) platforms. This also led to an undesired complexity of the
code.
Apache 2.0 introduces the concept of MPMs, whose main responsibility
is to map the incoming requests to either threads, processes, or a
threads/processes hybrid. Now it's possible to write
different processing modules specific to various platforms. For
example, Apache 2.0 on Windows is much more efficient and
maintainable now, since it uses mpm_winnt, which
deploys native Windows features.
Here is a partial list of the major MPMs available as of this writing:
- prefork
-
The prefork MPM implements
Apache
1.3's preforking model, in which each request is
handled by a different forked child process.
- worker
-
The worker MPM implements
a
hybrid multi-process/multi-threaded approach based on the
pthreadsstandard.
- mpmt_os2, netware, winnt, and beos
-
These MPMs also implement the hybrid
multi-process/multi-threaded model, like worker,
but unlike worker, each is based on the native
OS thread implementations, while worker uses the
pthread library available on Unix.
On platforms that support more than one MPM, it's
possible to switch the used MPMs as the need changes. For example, on
Unix it's possible to start with a preforked module,
then migrate to a more efficient threaded MPM as demand grows and the
code matures (assuming that the code base is capable of running in
the threaded environment).
- New hook scheme
-
In Apache 2.0 it's possible to
dynamically register functions for each
Apache hook, with more than one function registered per hook.
Moreover, when adding new functions, you can specify where the new
function should be added—for example, a function can be
inserted between two already registered functions, or in front of
them.
- Protocol modules
-
The previous Apache generation
could speak
only the HTTP protocol. Apache 2.0 has introduced a
"server framework" architecture,
making it possible to plug in handlers for protocols other than HTTP.
The protocol module design also abstracts the transport layer, so
protocols such as SSL can be hooked into the server without requiring
modifications to the Apache source code. This allows Apache to be
extended much further than in the past, making it possible to add
support for protocols such as FTP, NNTP, POP3, RPC flavors, and the
like. The main advantage is that protocol plug-ins can take advantage
of Apache's portability, process/thread management,
configuration mechanism, and plug-in API.
- GNU Autoconf-based configuration
-
Apache 2.0 uses the ubiquitous GNU Autoconf for
its configuration process, to make the configuration process more
portable.
- Parsed configuration tree
-
Apache 2.0 makes the parsed configuration tree available at runtime,
so modules needing to read the configuration data (e.g., mod_info)
don't have to re-parse the configuration file, but
can reuse the parsed tree.
All these new features boost Apache's performance,
scalability, and flexibility. The APR helps the overall performance
by doing lots of platform-specific optimizations in the APR internals
and giving the developer the already greatly optimized API.
The I/O layering helps performance too, since now modules
don't need to waste memory and CPU cycles to
manually store the data in shared memory or
pnotes in order to pass the data to another
module (e.g., to provide gzip compression for
outgoing data).
And, of course, an important impact of these features is the
simplification and added flexibility for the core and third-party
Apache module developers.
Figure 24-1. Imaginary bucket brigade
| | | V. mod_perl 2.0 | | 24.2. What's New in Perl 5.6.0-5.8.0 |
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