On Tue, Jan 12, 2016 at 12:13 PM, Rich Bowen <[email protected]> wrote:

> mod_fcgid is in a separate repo from the main httpd tree, due to
> historical reasons. I presume there are good reasons for this. JimJag
> suggested on IRC it's due to its independent release cycle.
>
> Be that as it may, because it uses the standard documentation tools for
> the module docs, https://httpd.apache.org/mod_fcgid/mod/mod_fcgid.html
> is full of broken links. In particular, try any of the directive and
> links to other modules - try the mod_cgi or AddHandler links in the
> intro paragraph, and you'll see immediately what the problem is.
>
> Now, we could of course have a separate version of the docs building
> tools just for this module, or we could patch the doc manually, but I
> was wondering, if there's no strong current reason for the module to be
> kept separate, can we please move it into the main httpd tree?
>

The reason for mod_ftp and mod_fcgid separate builds was historically
that the same module, releasing on a different calendar than httpd, have
been build-able independently against 2.0, 2.2 or 2.4.  Maintaining the
sources across the different branches was also something of a PITA.

Maybe more significantly, mod_proxy_fcgi was our 'adopted' solution
to the fcgi case.  mod_fcgid is a different beast with process pool
management. I was always under the impression that for 2.4 and later,
we collectively wanted to express process pools independently of the
mod_proxy_fcgi structure, much like we and tomcat would love to see
folks use mod_proxy_http or _ajp rather than mod_jk.

mod_ftp clearly isn't http:// so it never quite felt appropriate in that
tree, but then again neither is mod_proxy_ajp :)  Which goes to the
gist of it all, code bloat.  We've successfully only killed a tiny handful
of modules in our entire history (imagemap, mem_cache etc).
So once merge to trunk, we own that code bloat for a very long time,
but if it exists separate these can be enhanced or retired based on
our desires.  E.g. if mod_aspdotnet had lived in modules/os/win32/
we would still probably be shipping it, irrespective of how out of date
that module becomes.

I can see us moving those modules into trunk (not 2.4), retaining the
mmn tests for 2.2 and 2.4 compat, and then deriving an fcgid release
out of trunk/modules/fcgid/.  But I'm not clear why we would want to
maintain the duplication between mod_proxy_fcgi and mod_fcgid?
Individually they get little enough attention as it is.

Just my 2c USD, I'm open to ideas.

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