Major differences between mod_fastcgi and mod_proxy_fcgi

apache-2.2fastcgimod-fastcgi

I noticed there are a couple of modules for Apache that provide FastCGI support. The two most popular seem to be mod_fastcgi and mod_proxy_fcgi. There seem to be other ones as well.

My questions are:

  • Which of these module are the most popular?
  • Which of them are considered obsolete.

The reason I am asking is that I'm writing FastCGI support for a certain scripting language and I wonder which setups I should primarily test with.

Granted, FastCGI is a standard so, in theory everything should be portable. On the other hand, there seem to be certain differences concerning application server start-up, etc. I would also like to write some "how-to's" once I'm finished, so I would like to know which options to cover primarily.

Hope this is not an open-ended question.

Best Answer

They are just different modules. mod_fastcgi manages started processes while mod_proxy_fcgi uses already set up installation. For example if you are using php-fpm you need to select mod_proxy_fcgi.