NYCPHP Meetup

[Hans Zaunere]

Scott Mattocks wrote:

> Hello,
> We will be switching over to a new server that is going to be running 
> Apache 2.0.46.  Our current system runs Apache 1.3.something with PHP 
> 4.3.2.  When Apache 2.0 first came out I heard a lot of people saying

Is there something specific about Apache 2 that you need?  If not, stick with Apache 1.

> not to run it if you are using PHP but I can't remember why.  Are there 
> still issues mixing the two?  Should we reconsider our Apache 
> distribution and what advice do you guys have to make the transition 
> easier?

Very little, if any, progress has been made on this front.  It's not PHP/Apache 2.0/ per se, but rather the libs that PHP uses.  For instance, let's say you compile PHP with GD support - is GD thread safe?  Then you compile GD with libjpeg - is libjpeg thread safe?  The number of combinations of libs that PHP can be used with is huge, and thus ensuring each is thread safe is very hard.  That said, the PHPZend/Apache 2.0/ interaction, at the SAPI and engine levels, could be improved, but there is little motivation because of the library issues.  It's a chicken-before-the-egg problem.

You could use Apache 2 with the prefork MPM.  However, that's basically the same as Apache 1, but using a not-so-well-tested SAPI - so why switch?  :)

H