LC Server- Optimum setup

[Richard Gaskin]

prothero wrote:

 > I’ve been thinking about experimenting with Livecode server. I have
 > a vps and root access, but I’m wondering what are the speed and user
 > consequences of installing it at root level, or as a cgi. The cgi is
 > fairly large and I’m concerned about both speed and memory issues when
 > multiple users are accessing it.
 >
 > I know this has been discussed in the past, but would appreciate any
 > advice based on recent experience.

CGIs are CGIs, whether configured for all users via admin access to 
Apache config, or for individual users on a shared host via .htacces.

Also, the size on disk is not reflective of real-world RAM requirements. 
You can check RAM requirements in Terminal by calling the engine with a 
simple script using the timing tool located at /usr/bin/time:

   /user/bin/time -v /path/to/your/lcserver somescript.lc

The -v flag is for "verbose", listing a wide range of runtime stats 
including "Maximum resident set size" and "Average resident set size", 
with "set size" referring to physical RAM used.

For example, running that on the script I posted earlier for my example 
CGI yields:

         User time (seconds): 0.02
	System time (seconds): 0.02
	Percent of CPU this job got: 97%
	Elapsed (wall clock) time (h:mm:ss or m:ss): 0:00.04
	Average shared text size (kbytes): 0
	Average unshared data size (kbytes): 0
	Average stack size (kbytes): 0
	Average total size (kbytes): 0
	Maximum resident set size (kbytes): 19728
	Average resident set size (kbytes): 0
	Major (requiring I/O) page faults: 0
	Minor (reclaiming a frame) page faults: 1526
	Voluntary context switches: 1
	Involuntary context switches: 0
	Swaps: 0
	File system inputs: 0
	File system outputs: 0
	Socket messages sent: 0
	Socket messages received: 0
	Signals delivered: 0
	Page size (bytes): 4096
	Exit status: 0


Separate from anything to do with LC, there is a modest performance 
difference between using .htacess and making those directives available 
to all users in Apache config: if you don't enable mod_rewrite, Apache 
doesn't need to scan folders for .htaccess files.  This is a VERY minor 
difference, however, and if you need the flexibility of mod_rewrite you 
should use it.

But FWIW most production servers set things up in Apache config, and 
since you're not limited to the issues with shared hosting you might as 
well do it the standard way.  It's more work, and you'll be using sudo a 
lot since permissions are tighter.  But for a production server, more 
restrictive permissions are exactly what we want.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com