the vast majority of apache's are in bundled optional modules, not the core.
I am not sure where ohloh is getting its numbers, but here are the directory stats from slocount, for the recent httpd 2.3.5-alpha:
SLOC Directory SLOC-by-Language (Sorted)
95386 modules ansic=95095,lex=191,yacc=100
27977 server ansic=27977
11362 build sh=9980,awk=657,perl=433,pascal=292
7248 support ansic=7076,perl=92,sh=80
3250 include ansic=3250
1622 os ansic=1622
1094 test ansic=843,sh=230,perl=21
159 top_dir sh=159
If you were to strip out everything 'not needed' for a basic server, I expect you would end up 'running' about 40k LOC, which I think is 'inline' with others like varnish/lighttpd/etc
apache's problem isn't bloat, its architecture and bad sysadmins. it was designed from 1994 for prefork-based systems, and sysadmins have been configuring it since then, or not configuring it. Yes, it will use lots of ram when you embed Python and PHP in it, so don't do that.
mini-rant over, and a disclaimer: i am an httpd committer.
Does it really use any more RAM with python or PHP embedded than Apache + out of process Python or PHP would together? Seems to me that the main inefficiency is that the memory overhea for the scripting language is incurred whether or not there is active execution. So, that RAM is still tied up when sending a static file to a client, or when sending the buffered result of a static page. Seems like having an event-driven piece that took over for each prefork process when it came to returning the result and any logging that happens after the result has been sent would be a relatively small amendment to the architecture with a big payoff.
I know people are reverse proxying to Apache with nginx or similar for similar reasons.
I haven't tried the other MPM plugins extensively, but it seems like the default should be "Don't use a ton of ram, don't fail if there's more than like 10 concurrent connections". Especially these days when people are ajax and cometting to their hearts content.
I guess one of the issues is that if you're using it with PHP/Python/etc, those expect to be in their own thread/process, so using more of a scalable async approach in apache isn't always possible.
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It's worrying just how bloated and large many simple web servers get. Those are some seriously large LOC counts.
the vast majority of apache's are in bundled optional modules, not the core.
I am not sure where ohloh is getting its numbers, but here are the directory stats from slocount, for the recent httpd 2.3.5-alpha:
If you were to strip out everything 'not needed' for a basic server, I expect you would end up 'running' about 40k LOC, which I think is 'inline' with others like varnish/lighttpd/etcapache's problem isn't bloat, its architecture and bad sysadmins. it was designed from 1994 for prefork-based systems, and sysadmins have been configuring it since then, or not configuring it. Yes, it will use lots of ram when you embed Python and PHP in it, so don't do that.
mini-rant over, and a disclaimer: i am an httpd committer.
Does it really use any more RAM with python or PHP embedded than Apache + out of process Python or PHP would together? Seems to me that the main inefficiency is that the memory overhea for the scripting language is incurred whether or not there is active execution. So, that RAM is still tied up when sending a static file to a client, or when sending the buffered result of a static page. Seems like having an event-driven piece that took over for each prefork process when it came to returning the result and any logging that happens after the result has been sent would be a relatively small amendment to the architecture with a big payoff.
I know people are reverse proxying to Apache with nginx or similar for similar reasons.
I haven't tried the other MPM plugins extensively, but it seems like the default should be "Don't use a ton of ram, don't fail if there's more than like 10 concurrent connections". Especially these days when people are ajax and cometting to their hearts content.
I guess one of the issues is that if you're using it with PHP/Python/etc, those expect to be in their own thread/process, so using more of a scalable async approach in apache isn't always possible.
I agree @ architecture + misconfiguration.