


CGI::Fast(3p)    Perl Programmers Reference Guide   CGI::Fast(3p)


NAME
       CGI::Fast - CGI Interface for Fast CGI

SYNOPSIS
           use CGI::Fast qw(:standard);
           $COUNTER = 0;
           while (new CGI::Fast) {
               print header;
               print start_html("Fast CGI Rocks");
               print
                   h1("Fast CGI Rocks"),
                   "Invocation number ",b($COUNTER++),
                   " PID ",b($$),".",
                   hr;
               print end_html;
           }

DESCRIPTION
       CGI::Fast is a subclass of the CGI object created by
       CGI.pm.  It is specialized to work well FCGI module, which
       greatly speeds up CGI scripts by turning them into
       persistently running server processes.  Scripts that
       perform time-consuming initialization processes, such as
       loading large modules or opening persistent database
       connections, will see large performance improvements.

OTHER PIECES OF THE PUZZLE
       In order to use CGI::Fast you'll need the FCGI module.
       See http://www.cpan.org/ for details.

WRITING FASTCGI PERL SCRIPTS
       FastCGI scripts are persistent: one or more copies of the
       script are started up when the server initializes, and
       stay around until the server exits or they die a natural
       death.  After performing whatever one-time initialization
       it needs, the script enters a loop waiting for incoming
       connections, processing the request, and waiting some
       more.

       A typical FastCGI script will look like this:

           #!/usr/bin/perl
           use CGI::Fast;
           &do_some_initialization();
           while ($q = new CGI::Fast) {
               &process_request($q);
           }

       Each time there's a new request, CGI::Fast returns a CGI
       object to your loop.  The rest of the time your script
       waits in the call to new().  When the server requests that
       your script be terminated, new() will return undef.  You
       can of course exit earlier if you choose.  A new version
       of the script will be respawned to take its place (this



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CGI::Fast(3p)    Perl Programmers Reference Guide   CGI::Fast(3p)


       may be necessary in order to avoid Perl memory leaks in
       long-running scripts).

       CGI.pm's default CGI object mode also works.  Just modify
       the loop this way:

           while (new CGI::Fast) {
               &process_request;
           }

       Calls to header(), start_form(), etc. will all operate on
       the current request.

INSTALLING FASTCGI SCRIPTS
       See the FastCGI developer's kit documentation for full
       details.  On the Apache server, the following line must be
       added to srm.conf:

           AddType application/x-httpd-fcgi .fcgi

       FastCGI scripts must end in the extension .fcgi.  For each
       script you install, you must add something like the
       following to srm.conf:

           FastCgiServer /usr/etc/httpd/fcgi-bin/file_upload.fcgi -processes 2

       This instructs Apache to launch two copies of
       file_upload.fcgi at startup time.

USING FASTCGI SCRIPTS AS CGI SCRIPTS
       Any script that works correctly as a FastCGI script will
       also work correctly when installed as a vanilla CGI
       script.  However it will not see any performance benefit.

EXTERNAL FASTCGI SERVER INVOCATION
       FastCGI supports a TCP/IP transport mechanism which allows
       FastCGI scripts to run external to the webserver, perhaps
       on a remote machine.  To configure the webserver to
       connect to an external FastCGI server, you would add the
       following to your srm.conf:

           FastCgiExternalServer /usr/etc/httpd/fcgi-bin/file_upload.fcgi -host sputnik:8888

       Two environment variables affect how the "CGI::Fast"
       object is created, allowing "CGI::Fast" to be used as an
       external FastCGI server.  (See "FCGI" documentation for
       "FCGI::OpenSocket" for more information.)

       FCGI_SOCKET_PATH
           The address (TCP/IP) or path (UNIX Domain) of the
           socket the external FastCGI script to which bind can
           listen for incoming connections from the web server.





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CGI::Fast(3p)    Perl Programmers Reference Guide   CGI::Fast(3p)


       FCGI_LISTEN_QUEUE
           Maximum length of the queue of pending connections.

       For example:

           #!/usr/local/bin/perl    # must be a FastCGI version of perl!
           use CGI::Fast;
           &do_some_initialization();
           $ENV{FCGI_SOCKET_PATH} = "sputnik:8888";
           $ENV{FCGI_LISTEN_QUEUE} = 100;
           while ($q = new CGI::Fast) {
               &process_request($q);
           }

CAVEATS
       I haven't tested this very much.

AUTHOR INFORMATION
       Copyright 1996-1998, Lincoln D. Stein.  All rights
       reserved.

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it
       and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

       Address bug reports and comments to: lstein@cshl.org

BUGS
       This section intentionally left blank.

SEE ALSO
       CGI::Carp, CGI


























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