NAME

       CGI::Fast - CGI Interface for Fast CGI

SYNOPSIS

           use CGI::Fast
               socket_path  => '9000',
               socket_perm  => 0777,
               listen_queue => 50;

           use CGI qw/ :standard /;

           $COUNTER = 0;

           # optional, will default to STDOUT, STDERR
           CGI::Fast->file_handles({
               fcgi_output_file_handle => IO::Handle->new,
               fcgi_error_file_handle  => IO::Handle->new,
           });

           while ($q = CGI::Fast->new) {
               process_request($q);
           }

DESCRIPTION

       CGI::Fast is a subclass of the CGI object created by CGI.pm.  It is specialized to work
       with the 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:

           #!perl
           use CGI::Fast;
           do_some_initialization();
           while ($q = CGI::Fast->new) {
               process_request($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 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 (CGI::Fast->new) {
               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/lib/cgi-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/lib/cgi-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.)

       You can set these as ENV variables or imports in the use CGI::Fast statement.  If the ENV
       variables are set then these will be favoured so you can override the import statements on
       the command line, etc.

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

       FCGI_SOCKET_PERM / socket_perm
           Permissions for UNIX Domain socket.

       FCGI_LISTEN_QUEUE / listen_queue
           Maximum length of the queue of pending connections, defaults to 100.

       For example:

           use CGI::Fast
               socket_path  => "sputnik:8888",
               listen_queue => "50"
           ;

           use CGI qw/ :standard /;

           do_some_initialization();

           while ($q = CGI::Fast->new) {
               process_request($q);
           }

       Or:

           use CGI::Fast;
           use CGI qw/ :standard /;

           do_some_initialization();

           $ENV{FCGI_SOCKET_PATH} = "sputnik:8888";
           $ENV{FCGI_LISTEN_QUEUE} = 50;

           while ($q = CGI::Fast->new) {
               process_request($q);
           }

       Note the importance of having use CGI after use CGI::Fast as this will prevent any CGI
       import pragmas being overwritten by CGI::Fast. You can use CGI::Fast as a drop in
       replacement like so:

           use CGI::Fast qw/ :standard /

FILE HANDLES

       FCGI defaults to using STDOUT and STDERR as its output filehandles - this may lead to
       unexpected redirect of output if you migrate scripts from CGI.pm to CGI::Fast. To get
       around this you can use the file_handles method, which you must do before the first call
       to CGI::Fast->new. For example using IO::Handle:

           CGI::Fast->file_handles({
               fcgi_output_file_handle => IO::Handle->new,
               fcgi_error_file_handle  => IO::Handle->new,
           });

           while (CGI::Fast->new) {
               ..
           }

       Overriding STDIN using the "fcgi_input_file_handle" key is also possible, however doing so
       is likely to break at least POST requests.

CAVEATS

       I haven't tested this very much.

LICENSE

       Copyright 1996-1998, Lincoln D. Stein.  All rights reserved. Currently maintained by Lee
       Johnson

       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:

           https://github.com/leejo/cgi-fast

BUGS

       This section intentionally left blank.

SEE ALSO

       CGI::Carp, CGI