lighttpd?

[Tomaž Borštnar]

Scott Nasuta wrote:
Lighttpd had a few errors each time I tried to start the httpd server
after it compiled cleanly. Various configuration errors complaining
about invalid characters in the config file 
This is weird. Did you use port for it? It compiles and installs just fine.

and another complaining it
couldn't get permission to open the error log.
For logs it is best to create its own directory and chown it to www and 
change config to log there. It works without any problem.

I spent a few hours on
the specific messages over at the lighttpd forums but pretty much came
up with no progress at which point I cut my losses and just installed
Apache because I know it works nicely on DFL from past tinkering.
it does work nicely but uses LOTS of memory when you run a busy site - 
lighttpd uses much less (less than 2 megs at start and now in production 
around 6-7 megs) and PHP module overhead is no issue since with FastCGI 
php processes only get actual PHP files. With such approach persistant 
connections are actually useful since it can do database operations 
faster, because connection is already open. Apps which need to do a lot 
of small operations with db and needs to be fast love this!


I was trying to get lighttpd up as our webserver because research came
up at several sites that it outperformed Apache, had easier config,
PLUS had built in FastCGI support which was essential for the Perl
bulletin board (IkonBoard) I setup for our school. But like I said I
just ended up installing the Apache+mod_perl port and had it running in
little time.
It would be interesting to compare memory footprint of apache+modperl 
and lighttpd with perl as fastcgi. I hope you will try this one day too.
With more memory left to the system everything should run more smoothly 
as UVM should use it as much as possible.

Tomaž