Hudzilla.org - the homepage of Paul Hudson

18.1.16 Don't use CGI

This is NOT the latest copy of this book; click here for the latest version.

You have two options when installing PHP: use it as a CGI executable, or use it as an Apache/ISAPI module. Although there are advantages in favour of both options, running PHP as a module is overwhelmingly favourable when it comes to performance, as all of PHP and its extension modules reside in memory as opposed to being loaded with every request.

From a purely performance-motivated point of view you would be crazy to run PHP as a CGI executable.

<< 18.1.15 Compress your output		18.1.17 Don't use dl() >>
Table of Contents

Want to see this stuff in print? PHP in a Nutshell takes the core topics covered here, adds in thousands of edits from the editorial team and myself, and combines them to make an unbeatable reference for PHP programmers at all levels.

My latest book has hundreds more tips on how to use PHP, Apache, and MySQL, plus Perl, Python, shell scripts, performance tuning, and more!

Paul - 05 Dec 2008

I have no choice in the matter, my host uses phpsuexec (php run as cgi).
They made the switch to phpsuexec in December of '05.

Add comment
Please note that by posting a comment here you are committing it to the public domain. This is important so that others can make use of your code themselves, and also so that I can incorporate helpful notes directly into the main text. Comments are limited to 2000 characters in length.

If you are reporting an error in the content, please tell me directly.