[imp] Re: Question with regard to apache and php for IMP

[horde user]

A flippant answer to the benefit that it's easier to upgrade is that
it might make you less conservative about upgrading php.  If you can
afford it, it's very nice to have a separate machine where you can
test new versions of apache, php, imp, mysql, etc. before you upgrade
the production systems.  It doesn't need to be as big and powerful as
the production systems but do be sure and give it plenty of ram.

To answer your question, I don't think there's much of a performance
hit, if any, by using a DSO php.  My understanding is that the only
real slowdown is at the very beginning when apache is started; the
dynamic linker has to link in the DSO modules but I'd guess that the
extra time needed is on the order of a few seconds at most.

On the other hand, I've often had problems getting everyone to play
nicely together and have had to resort to static linking of my apache
server.  The symptoms are that some symbol isn't found by the dynamic
linker when apache is started.  Making everything static makes the
problem go away.  Initially there is a little extra work making sure
that the add-on libraries and modules aren't producing and installing
shared libraries but once you get that figured out you're home free.
(If you'd like a copy of my configure shell script wrappers to see
what I'm doing, drop me a line.)