# Multi-Processing Module prefork

This Multi-Processing Module implements a non-threaded, pre-forking web server.

Status: MPM
Source File: prefork.c
Module Identifier: mpm_prefork_module

## Summary

This Multi-Processing Module (MPM) implements a non-threaded, pre-forking web server which handles request in a manner very similar to the default behavior of Apache 1.3 on Unix.

A single control process is responsible for launching child processes which listen for connections and serve them when they arrive. Apache always tries to maintain several spare or idle server processes, which stand ready to serve incoming requests. In this way, clients do not need to wait for a new child processes to be forked before their requests can be served.

The `StartServers`, `MinSpareServers`, `MaxSpareServers`, and `MaxServers` regulate how the parent process creates children to serve requests. In general, Apache is very self-regulating, so most sites do not need to adjust these directives from their default values. Sites which need to serve more than 256 simultaneous requests may need to increase `MaxClients`, while sites with limited memory may need to decrease `MaxClients` to keep the server from thrashing (swapping memory to disk and back). More information about tuning process creation is provided in the performance hints documentation.

While the parent process is usually started as root under Unix in order to bind to port 80, the child processes are launched by Apache as a less-privileged user. The `User` and `Group` directives are used to set the privileges of the Apache child processes. The child processes must be able to read all the content that will be served, but should have as few privileges beyond that as possible. In addition, unless suexec is used, these directives also set the privileges which will be inherited by CGI scripts.

`MaxRequestsPerChild` controls how frequently the server recycles processes by killing old ones and launching new ones.

See also: Setting which addresses and ports Apache uses.

## Directives

- AcceptMutex
- CoreDumpDirectory
- Group
- PidFile
- Listen
- ListenBacklog
- LockFile
- MaxClients
- MaxRequestsPerChild
- MaxSpareServers
- MinSpareServers
- ScoreBoardFile
- SendBufferSize
- StartServers
- User

## AcceptMutex Directive

Syntax: AcceptMutex default|method
Default: `AcceptMutex default`
Context: server config
Status: core

The `AcceptMutex` directives sets the method that Apache uses to serialize multiple children accepting requests on network sockets. Prior to Apache 2.0, the method was selectable only at compile time. The optimal method to use is highly architecture and platform dependent. For further details, see the performance tuning documentation.

If this directive is set to `default`, then the compile-time selected default will be used. Other possible methods are listed below. Note that not all methods are available on all platforms. If a method is specified which is not available, a message will be written to the error log listing the available methods.

`flock`
  uses the `flock(2)` system call to lock the file defined by the LockFile directive.
`fcntl`
  uses the `fnctl(2)` system call to lock the file defined by the LockFile directive.
`sysvsem`
  uses SySV-style semaphores to implement the mutex.
`proc_pthread`
  uses POSIX mutexes as implemented by the POSIX Threads (PThreads) specification.

## MaxSpareServers directive

Syntax: MaxSpareServers number
Default: `MaxSpareServers 10`
Context: server config
Status: core

The MaxSpareServers directive sets the desired maximum number of idle child server processes. An idle process is one which is not handling a request. If there are more than MaxSpareServers idle, then the parent process will kill off the excess processes.

Tuning of this parameter should only be necessary on very busy sites. Setting this parameter to a large number is almost always a bad idea.

See also MinSpareServers and StartServers.

## MinSpareServers directive

Syntax: MinSpareServers number
Default: `MinSpareServers 5`
Context: server config
Status: core

The MinSpareServers directive sets the desired minimum number of idle child server processes. An idle process is one which is not handling a request. If there are fewer than MinSpareServers idle, then the parent process creates new children at a maximum rate of 1 per second.

Tuning of this parameter should only be necessary on very busy sites. Setting this parameter to a large number is almost always a bad idea.

This directive has no effect on Microsoft Windows.

See also MaxSpareServers and StartServers.