Re: [Staffslug] Best Linux Server Distro for LAM (perl/CGI)

Looks like I should go the PHP/PYTHON route anyway

Very useful advice, many thanks. Looks like I should go the PHP/PYTHON route anyway then. It might be less hassle in the long run. I'll do some more checking but I understand that PHP especially is completely portable. Walt -----Original Message----- From: staffslug-bounces(a)staffslug.org.uk [mailto:staffslug-bounces@staffslug.org.uk] On Behalf Of Chris 'BinGOs' Williams Sent: 30 June 2010 14:05 To: staffslug(a)staffslug.org.uk Subject: Re: [Staffslug] Best Linux Server Distro for LAM (perl/CGI) On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 12:16:12PM +0100, walt wrote: > Hi, > > Can you advise as to which Linux Server Distro is the best to use for > a Linux server to be used as an apache/mysql server with perl and cgi. > Its for a test site I'd like to set up and convert an ASP site with > databases and email to Perl CGI. I was thinking of using PHP but I > know Perl reasonably well already so I'll start with that. > > Many thanks, Walt > It doesn't really matter from perls point of view because it is portable and runs everywhere >:) You say CGI, CGI is hideously unscalable. Each request to a cgi script spawns a copy of the perl executable. ( All scripting languages suffer the same from this ). There are ways of mitigating this. One is with mod_perl extension to Apache, similiar to mod_php. This spawns a one copy of the perl executable in the webserver that then deals with all requests. This is hideous as well in its own way. a). You have to be careful with variables as the scripts are loaded up-front; b). now you have married your webserver and application and divorce is hard ( ie. doing webserver updates, perl updates, etc. could break things ). All the people I know in the Perl community who do web development are using FastCGI these days. The webserver deals with what it does best, serving web pages. It communicates over a socket to a perl application using the FastCGI protocol and the perl application sends stuff back over the same socket. a). The webserver and application are now separate and can be indepedently updated etc. b). The application can be moved to faster hardware if required Cheers, -- Chris Williams aka BinGOs PGP ID 0x4658671F http://www.gumbynet.org.uk ========================== _______________________________________________ Staffslug mailing list Staffslug(a)staffslug.org.uk http://lists.staffslug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/staffslug