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<p class="apache">Apache HTTP Server Version 2.3</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/">Documentation</a> > <a href="../">Version 2.3</a> > <a href="./">Modules</a></div>
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<div id="preamble"><h1>Apache MPM prefork</h1>
<div class="toplang">
<p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="/de/mod/prefork.html" hreflang="de" rel="alternate" title="Deutsch"> de </a> |
</div>
<table class="module"><tr><th><a href="module-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Implements a non-threaded, pre-forking web server</td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="module-dict.html#ModuleIdentifier">Module�Identifier:</a></th><td>mpm_prefork_module</td></tr>
<h3>Summary</h3>
<p>This Multi-Processing Module (MPM) implements a non-threaded,
pre-forking web server that handles requests in a manner similar
to Apache 1.3. It is appropriate for sites that need to avoid
threading for compatibility with non-thread-safe libraries. It
is also the best MPM for isolating each request, so that a problem
with a single request will not affect any other.</p>
<p>This MPM is very self-regulating, so it is rarely necessary to
adjust its configuration directives. Most important is that
<code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#maxclients">MaxClients</a></code> be big enough to
handle as many simultaneous requests as you expect to receive, but
small enough to assure that there is enough physical RAM for all
processes.</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#enableexceptionhook">EnableExceptionHook</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#receivebuffersize">ReceiveBufferSize</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#startservers">StartServers</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 is responsible for launching child
processes which listen for connections and serve them when they
arrive. Apache always tries to maintain several <dfn>spare</dfn>
or idle server processes, which stand ready to serve incoming
requests. In this way, clients do not need to wait for a new
child processes to be forked before their requests can be
served.</p>
<code class="directive"><a href="#minspareservers">MinSpareServers</a></code>,
<code class="directive"><a href="#maxspareservers">MaxSpareServers</a></code>, and
<code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#maxclients">MaxClients</a></code> regulate how
the parent process creates children to serve requests. In general,
Apache is very self-regulating, so most sites do not need to
adjust these directives from their default values. Sites which
need to serve more than 256 simultaneous requests may need to
while sites with limited memory may need to decrease <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#maxclients">MaxClients</a></code> to keep the server from
thrashing (swapping memory to disk and back). More information
about tuning process creation is provided in the <a href="/misc/perf-tuning.html">performance hints</a>
documentation.</p>
<p>While the parent process is usually started as <code>root</code>
under Unix in order to bind to port 80, the child processes are
launched by Apache as a less-privileged user. The <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_unixd.html#user">User</a></code> and <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_unixd.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 possible.</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>
</div>
<div class="directive-section"><h2><a name="MaxSpareServers" id="MaxSpareServers">MaxSpareServers</a> <a name="maxspareservers" id="maxspareservers">Directive</a></h2>
<table class="directive">
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Maximum number of idle child server processes</td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax">Syntax:</a></th><td><code>MaxSpareServers <var>number</var></code></td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Default">Default:</a></th><td><code>MaxSpareServers 10</code></td></tr>
</table>
<p>The <code class="directive">MaxSpareServers</code> directive sets the
desired maximum number of <em>idle</em> child server processes. An
idle process is one which is not handling a request. If there are
more than <code class="directive">MaxSpareServers</code> idle, then the
parent process will kill off the excess processes.</p>
<p>Tuning of this parameter should only be necessary on very
busy sites. Setting this parameter to a large number is almost
always a bad idea. If you are trying to set the value equal to or lower than
<code class="directive"><a href="#minspareservers">MinSpareServers</a></code>, Apache
will automatically adjust it to <code class="directive">MinSpareServers</code><code> + 1</code>.</p>
<h3>See also</h3>
<ul>
<li><code class="directive"><a href="#minspareservers">MinSpareServers</a></code></li>
<li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#startservers">StartServers</a></code></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="directive-section"><h2><a name="MinSpareServers" id="MinSpareServers">MinSpareServers</a> <a name="minspareservers" id="minspareservers">Directive</a></h2>
<table class="directive">
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Minimum number of idle child server processes</td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax">Syntax:</a></th><td><code>MinSpareServers <var>number</var></code></td></tr>
<tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Default">Default:</a></th><td><code>MinSpareServers 5</code></td></tr>
</table>
<p>The <code class="directive">MinSpareServers</code> directive sets the
desired minimum number of <em>idle</em> child server processes. An
idle process is one which is not handling a request. If there are
fewer than <code class="directive">MinSpareServers</code> idle, then the parent
process creates new children at a maximum rate of 1 per second.</p>
<p>Tuning of this parameter should only be necessary on very
busy sites. Setting this parameter to a large number is almost
always a bad idea.</p>
<h3>See also</h3>
<ul>
<li><code class="directive"><a href="#maxspareservers">MaxSpareServers</a></code></li>
<li><code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mpm_common.html#startservers">StartServers</a></code></li>
</ul>
</div>
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