Why Not inetd?

Why should you run the server standalone as opposed to running it from inetd? If your server has a lot of CPU cycles to burn, then there is nothing wrong with running HTTPd from inetd. Most servers don't.

If you run the server from inetd, that means that whenever a request comes in, inetd must first fork a new process, then load the HTTPd binary. Once the HTTPd binary is loaded, HTTPd must then load and parse all of its configuration files (including httpd.conf, access.conf, and mime.types), which is quite a task to be done for each and every request that comes in.

Now, contrast this with running standalone. When HTTPd gets a request, it makes a copy of itself (which requires no loading of a binary since shared text pages are used), and the copy handles the request. The configuration files have already been loaded on startup, and so we don't reload them every time.

In fact, with NCSA HTTPd 1.4 and 1.5, it doesn't even have to make another copy of itself if there is an extra server already running. The parent will just pass off the request to the free child.

[Back] Return to ServerType instructions
NCSA HTTPd Development Team / httpd@ncsa.uiuc.edu / 10-02-95