Running CGI scripts with mod_perl

Existing CGI scripts will run much faster under mod_perl. And converting existing CGI scripts to run under mod_perl is easy.

For example, here's an existing CGI script called hello.cgi.

  file:hello.cgi
  --------------
  #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
  use strict;
  use CGI;
  my $q = CGI->new;
  print $q->header,
        $q->start_html,
        $q->h1('Hello World!'),
        $q->end_html;

This script can now be run as-is under Apache::Registry by using the following configuration in httpd.conf:

  <Files hello.cgi>
      SetHandler perl-script
      PerlHandler Apache::Registry
      Options ExecCGI
  </Files>

That's basically it. Your scripts do need to be well coded, but there's even the Apache::PerlRun module to help with those "less clean" programs.

So how much faster do scripts run under Apache::Registry? Obviously, it depends on the script, but the hello.cgi script above ran at 7.3 requests per second as a CGI script and 243.0 requests per second with Apache::Registry.

For more information on running CGI scripts under mod_perl please see the CGI to mod_perl Porting section of The Guide.