[rt-devel] RT2 and mod_perl

[Tobias Brox]

> Is the fact that it works best with mod_perl simply because Mason works best
> with mod_perl or are there other reasons?

The major reason why mod_perl will be faster is that we don't have to do
the startup & initializing overhead each time the script is run, and that
it's possible to use caches.  This is feasible with stuff like FCGI
and eventually IPC::Shareable as well, so I don't think it will be that
different.  Though, FCGI requires a library linked into perl [sic], I
haven't done that yet (thought I should wait until 5.6.1 is around before
recompiling my perl), so I don't know.  Plain CGI is awfully slow.

>  I found a reference on the mason web
> site (http://www.masonhq.com/docs/faq/#Can_I_run_HTML_Mason_via_CGI_) that
> described how to run mason via CGI.  The person who wrote it said he didn't
> notice any performance problems, though their mason components weren't heavily
> used and performance wasn't critical to them.

We've read that, and I've copied something from there.

> > I have no clue about webmux.pl, I'm using CGI.  If you also would like to
> > run CGI, I might give you a snapshot of my rtmux.pl.  
> 
> This suggests that it is possible to run RT2 without mod_perl.
(..)
> And if one of the main developers of RT2 is currently not using mod_perl, will
> that be a "supported" option when RT2 is released?

Yes.  When RT 2.0 is shipped, it should be trivial to set it up using CGI
or FCGI instead of mod_perl.

> Our concerns about having to run apache+mod_perl in order to run RT2 are the
> increased complexity/load for our web server

I don't think the load will be increased, but there are some complexity;
I have a feeling that debugging will be harder, and that the web server
will be more fragile.

Though Mason do have some excellent debugging functionality ... which I
haven't studied too much because I didn't want to fight setting it up
without mod_perl. 

-- 
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are
 cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."
- Bertrand Russell