Dave Sherohman <esper at sherohman.org> writes: > Using mod_perl, you can create a startup script (using the PerlRequire or > PerlModule directive) which will run at server startup, when the mod_perl > environment is set up. Anything it does (like setting up DB connections or > precaching data) is then inherited by all child processes. > > Also, individual perl modules are persistent within each child process. > One of the things frequently stressed in the documentation I've seen > on writing perl modules for apache is that you have to clean up after > yourself, because the next request delegated to that child will have > whatever environment you leave behind. It seems that many CGI programmers > are in the habit of assuming that the world ends when their script does, > so they don't bother closing files, etc. I've never understood what mod_perl itself is really good for; the documentation didn't communicate anything to me. (I had at the time been writing Perl CGI scripts for years, making use of Perl 5 and objects. I had also run various web servers for several years. I.e., perhaps I was ignorant in the area, but I thought I had reason to believe otherwise.) I installed it because it was a prereq for embperl, if I remember correctly (I had originally hoped that it would *be* embperl). I've never written an Apache module; maybe the problem is I don't know I should be writing Apache modules for functions specific to particular web sites I'm developing? (Um, reading this I guess it could be interpreted as a slam at mod_perl and stuff. My actual intent is to try to get some pointers to understand the stuff here I don't currently understand.) -- David Dyer-Bennet / Welcome to the future! / dd-b at dd-b.net SF: http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/ Minicon: http://www.mnstf.org/minicon/ Photos: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/