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<title>perchild - Apache HTTP Server</title>
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<p class="menu"><a href="/mod/">Modules</a> | <a href="/mod/directives.html">Directives</a> | <a href="/faq/">FAQ</a> | <a href="/glossary.html">Glossary</a> | <a href="/sitemap.html">Sitemap</a></p>
<p class="apache">Apache HTTP Server Version 2.1</p>
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<a href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</a> > <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/">HTTP Server</a> > <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs-project/">Documentation</a> > <a href="../">Version 2.1</a> > <a href="./">Modules</a></div>
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<div id="preamble"><h1>Apache MPM perchild</h1>
<div class="toplang">
<p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="/en/mod/perchild.html" title="English"> en </a></p>
</div>
<table class="module"><tr><th><a href="module-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Multi-Processing Module allowing for daemon processes serving
requests to be assigned a variety of different userids</td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="module-dict.html#ModuleIdentifier">Module�Identifier:</a></th><td>mpm_perchild_module</td></tr>
<h3>Summary</h3>
<div class="warning">
This MPM does not currently work on most platforms. Work is ongoing
to make it functional.
</div>
<p>This Multi-Processing Module (MPM) implements a hybrid
multi-process, multi-threaded web server. A fixed number of
processes create threads to handle requests. Fluctuations in
load are handled by increasing or decreasing the number of
threads in each process.</p>
</div>
<div id="quickview"><h3 class="directives">Directives</h3>
<ul id="toc">
<li><img alt="" src="/images/right.gif" /> <a href="mpm_common.html#acceptmutex">AcceptMutex</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="/images/right.gif" /> <a href="mpm_common.html#coredumpdirectory">CoreDumpDirectory</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="/images/right.gif" /> <a href="mpm_common.html#listenbacklog">ListenBacklog</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="/images/right.gif" /> <a href="mpm_common.html#maxrequestsperchild">MaxRequestsPerChild</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="/images/right.gif" /> <a href="mpm_common.html#maxsparethreads">MaxSpareThreads</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="/images/right.gif" /> <a href="mpm_common.html#minsparethreads">MinSpareThreads</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="/images/right.gif" /> <a href="mpm_common.html#scoreboardfile">ScoreBoardFile</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="/images/right.gif" /> <a href="mpm_common.html#sendbuffersize">SendBufferSize</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="/images/right.gif" /> <a href="mpm_common.html#serverlimit">ServerLimit</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="/images/right.gif" /> <a href="mpm_common.html#startthreads">StartThreads</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="/images/right.gif" /> <a href="mpm_common.html#threadlimit">ThreadLimit</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="/images/right.gif" /> <a href="mpm_common.html#workerstacksize">WorkerStackSize</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Topics</h3>
<ul id="topics">
</ul><h3>See also</h3>
<ul class="seealso">
uses</a></li>
</ul></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="how-it-works" id="how-it-works">How it works</a></h2>
<p>A single control process launches the number of child processes
indicated by the <code class="directive"><a href="#numservers">NumServers</a></code>
directive at server startup. Each child process creates threads as
specified in the <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#startthreads">StartThreads</a></code> directive.
The individual threads then
listen for connections and serve them when they arrive.</p>
<p>Apache always tries to maintain a pool of <dfn>spare</dfn> or
idle server threads, which stand ready to serve incoming
requests. In this way, clients do not need to wait for new
threads to be created. For each child process, Apache assesses
the number of idle threads and creates or destroys threads to
keep this number within the boundaries specified by
and <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#maxsparethreads">MaxSpareThreads</a></code>.
Since this process is very self-regulating, it is rarely
necessary to modify these directives from their default values.
The maximum number of clients that may be served simultaneously
is determined by multiplying the number of server processes
that will be created (<code class="directive"><a href="#numservers">NumServers</a></code>) by the maximum
number of threads created in each process
(<code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#maxthreadsperchild">MaxThreadsPerChild</a></code>).</p>
<p>While the parent process is usually started as root under
Unix in order to bind to port 80, the child processes and
threads are launched by Apache as a less-privileged user. The
<code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#user">User</a></code> and <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#group">Group</a></code> directives are used to
set the privileges of the Apache child processes. The child
processes must be able to read all the content that will be
served, but should have as few privileges beyond that as
set the privileges which will be inherited by CGI scripts.</p>
<p><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#maxrequestsperchild">MaxRequestsPerChild</a></code>
controls how frequently the
server recycles processes by killing old ones and launching new
ones.</p>
<h3><a name="user-ids" id="user-ids">Working with different user-IDs</a></h3>
<p>The <code class="module"><a href="/mod/perchild.html">perchild</a></code> MPM adds the extra ability to
specify that particular processes should serve requests under
different user-IDs. These user-IDs can then be associated with
specific virtual hosts. You have to use one <code class="directive"><a href="#childperuserid">ChildPerUserID</a></code> directive for
particular virtual hosts to that user and group IDs.</p>
<p>The following example runs 7 child processes. Two of them are run
under <code>user1</code>/<code>group1</code>. The next four are run
under <code>user2</code>/<code>group2</code> and the remaining
process uses the <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#user">User</a></code> and <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#group">Group</a></code>
of the main server:</p>
<div class="example"><h3>Global config</h3><p><code>
NumServers 7<br />
ChildPerUserID user1 group1 2<br />
ChildPerUserID user2 group2 4
</code></p></div>
<p>Using unbalanced numbers of processes as above is useful, if the
particular virtual hosts produce different load. The assignment to
the virtual hosts is easily done as in the example below. In
conclusion with the example above the following assumes, that
<code>server2</code> has to serve about twice of the hits of
<code>server1</code>.</p>
<div class="example"><h3>Example</h3><p><code>
NameVirtualHost *<br />
<br />
<VirtualHost *><br />
<span class="indent">
ServerName fallbackhost<br />
# no assignment; use fallback<br />
</span>
</VirtualHost><br />
<br />
<VirtualHost *><br />
<span class="indent">
ServerName server1<br />
AssignUserID user1 group1<br />
</span>
</VirtualHost><br />
<br />
<VirtualHost *><br />
<span class="indent">
ServerName server2<br />
AssignUserID user2 group2<br />
</span>
</VirtualHost>
</code></p></div>
</div>
<div class="directive-section"><h2><a name="AssignUserID" id="AssignUserID">AssignUserID</a> <a name="assignuserid" id="assignuserid">Directive</a></h2>
<table class="directive">
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Tie a virtual host to a user and group ID</td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax">Syntax:</a></th><td><code>AssignUserID <var>user-id</var> <var>group-id</var></code></td></tr>
</table>
addressed to the virtual host where this directive appears will be
served by a process running with the specified user and group ID.</p>
<p>The user and group ID has to be assigned to a number of children
in the global server config using the <code class="directive"><a href="#childperuserid">ChildPerUserID</a></code> directive. See the section above for a
<a href="#user-ids">configuration example</a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="directive-section"><h2><a name="ChildPerUserID" id="ChildPerUserID">ChildPerUserID</a> <a name="childperuserid" id="childperuserid">Directive</a></h2>
<table class="directive">
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Specify user ID and group ID for a number of child
processes</td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax">Syntax:</a></th><td><code>ChildPerUserID <var>user-id</var> <var>group-id</var>
<var>num-children</var></code></td></tr>
</table>
<p>Specify a user ID and group ID for a number of child processes.
The third argument, <var>num-children</var>, is the number of child
processes to start with the specified user and group. It does
<em>not</em> represent a specific child number. In order to use this
directive, the server must be run initially as <code>root</code>.
If you start the server as a non-root user, it will fail to change
to the lesser privileged user.</p>
<p>If the total number of child processes, found by totaling all of the
third arguments to all <code class="directive">ChildPerUserID</code> directives
in the config file, is less than <code class="directive"><a href="#numservers">NumServers</a></code>, then all remaining children will inherit the
<code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#user">User</a></code> and <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#group">Group</a></code> settings from the main server.
See the section above for a <a href="#user-ids">configuration
example</a>.</p>
<div class="warning"><h3>Security</h3>
<p>Don't set <var>user-id</var> (or <var>group-id</var>) to
<code>root</code> unless you know exactly what you are doing, and
what the dangers are.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="directive-section"><h2><a name="MaxThreadsPerChild" id="MaxThreadsPerChild">MaxThreadsPerChild</a> <a name="maxthreadsperchild" id="maxthreadsperchild">Directive</a></h2>
<table class="directive">
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Maximum number of threads per child process</td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax">Syntax:</a></th><td><code>MaxThreadsPerChild <var>number</var></code></td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Default">Default:</a></th><td><code>MaxThreadsPerChild 64</code></td></tr>
</table>
<p>This directive sets the maximum number of threads that will be
created in each child process. To increase this value beyond its
default, it is necessary to change the value of the <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#threadlimit">ThreadLimit</a></code> directive and stop and
re-start the server.</p>
</div>
<div class="directive-section"><h2><a name="NumServers" id="NumServers">NumServers</a> <a name="numservers" id="numservers">Directive</a></h2>
<table class="directive">
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Total number of children alive at the same time</td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax">Syntax:</a></th><td><code>NumServers <var>number</var></code></td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Default">Default:</a></th><td><code>NumServers 2</code></td></tr>
</table>
<p>The <code class="directive">NumServers</code> directive determines the number
of children alive at the same time. This number should be large enough to
handle the requests for the entire site. To increase this value beyond the
value of <code>8</code>, it is necessary to change the value of the
<code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#serverlimit">ServerLimit</a></code> directive and stop
and re-start the server. See the section above for a <a href="#user-ids">configuration example</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="bottomlang">
<p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="/en/mod/perchild.html" title="English"> en </a></p>
</div><div id="footer">
<p class="apache">Copyright 1999-2004 The Apache Software Foundation.<br />Licensed under the <a href="http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0">Apache License, Version 2.0</a>.</p>
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