From: Gully Foyle <nospam@...>
Date: 2004-07-22T07:47:02+09:00
Subject: Re: mod_ruby or fastcgi+ruby?

Kirk Haines wrote:

> On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 23:47:03 +0900, Gully Foyle wrote
> 
>>What are the pros & cons of mod_ruby vs fastcgi+ruby?  Ruby will 
>>most likely be the latest stable snapshot (1.8.2).
> 
> 
> mod_ruby:
> 
> + Nice access to Apache internals.
> + Fast.
> + You can write handlers for Apache with it.  Handlers can let you do
>   powerful things.
> + Eruby, if you like that.
> + Easy config.
> - Interpreter is shared among all users of mod_ruby.  Potential for namespace
>   clashes because of this.
> - mod_ruby is an Apache specfic thing.  So your code isn't portable to
>   other web server types.
> 
> fast_cgi:
> + A familiar, conventional CGI-like interface.
> + Fast.
> + Pretty easy to configure this, too, though there is more complexity to
>   fine tuning it.
> + Many web servers support FastCGI, so your code is more portable.
> + Each seperate FastCGI application is in its own process so no namespace
>   clashes possible between different applications.
> - It IS more complex than mod_ruby.
> - Don't have the same level of access to the web server internals.
> 
> It's six of one, a half dozen of the other, really.  Both work well.  Both 
> can handle busy web sites with good performance and stability.  Is there a 
> particular templating system or web development framework that you want to 
> use?  If so, does it support both of these, or is it better with one of 
> them?  Which one seems more interesting to you?  Can some of what you want 
> to do be done via a handler?  Is it important to you to have your code 
> portable to other web server software?
> 
> The answers to those questions may well point you toward one or the other.
> 
> 
> Kirk Haines
> 
> 
> 

Thanks for the great info!  It was very helpful.

I think the only remaining question I have is regarding this:

 > - Interpreter is shared among all users of mod_ruby.  Potential for
 > namespace clashes because of this.

I'm not quite sure I understand the nature of the namespace clash in 
mod_ruby.

When I tried to set a global counter variable just to see what happens, 
it appears that each instance of apache process gets its own copy. And I 
was under the impression (I could be totally wrong) that only one 
request is served up by each process at a time.

Thanks again for the info you've already provided.