Improving Performance with mod_perl

[Editor's note: the following series of excerpts is taken from Chapter 3 of the New Riders publication, MySQL and Perl for the Web.]

The primary goal in Chapter 2, "Getting Connected--Putting Your Database on the Web," was to take care of the basic aspects of getting your MySQL server to work with Apache. The important thing there was just to get data in and out of your databases over the Web, without any particular regard for performance. In this chapter, we'll consider a simple method for improving performance that can help you throughout the rest of this book: use the Apache mod_perl module. In other words, the chapter isn't so much about how to write scripts as about how to make them run faster. I'll describe what mod_perl is and how it changes the way Apache handles scripts to make them execute more quickly. Then we'll see what configuration changes are necessary for using mod_perl and discuss some guidelines for making sure your scripts run properly.

For more information about mod_perl, see Appendix B, "References and Further Reading." You'll probably want to consult the mod_perl Guide as a general reference. Several other mod_perl documents make informative reading, too.

Chapter 3 sections:

• What mod_perl Is and How It Works
• mod_perl Configuration
• Writing mod_perl Scripts