Did you install the W3C Markup Validator? You can help.

Dear all,

This is a call to all those in this community who have installed / are  
running a local install of the W3C markup validator.

More precisely, if you are running a recent version of the validator  
(0.8.1 or more recent) on the apache server, I would like to ask for  
your help in testing the validator running under the mod_perl apache  
module.

As you may know, the markup validator perl cgi script. In most setups,  
it is interpreted on the fly at each validation request, with the  
apache server launching the perl interpreter each time. But if  
properly set up, apache can run perl as a module, compiling the  
templates and loading perl modules once and for all.

Using this mod_perl setup can yield, according to some tests[1], an  
order of magnitude in speed improvement (in the very best cases) but  
also means that each apache process consumes much more memory than  
they would without the mod_perl module enabled. We tried using it for  
the production servers validator.w3.org in the past, but had a number  
of trouble with load getting very high, and had to stick to the lesser  
cgi scheme.

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-qa-dev/2008Feb/0002.html

If you are running a local instance of the validator, it would be  
extremely useful to get feedback on whether you are running it under  
mod_perl (and what version of apache you are running, what version of  
the validator, etc), and how it affects your server (apache memory  
usage, responsiveness under heavy request load, etc).

And if you are not running mod_perl, please give it a try. If you are  
using the sample apache configuration bundled with the validator[2] it  
is just a matter of enabling the mod_perl module. [3]

[2] http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/validator/httpd/conf/httpd.conf?rev=HEAD
[3] http://perl.apache.org/docs/2.0/user/intro/start_fast.html#Configuration

Your help in testing and debugging any potential issue can be pivotal  
to a dramatic improvement in the public validation service.

Thanks,
olivier.

-- 
olivier Thereaux - W3C - http://www.w3.org/People/olivier/
W3C Open Source Software: http://www.w3.org/Status

Received on Tuesday, 5 February 2008 07:18:38 UTC