Is FastCGI coming to HG shared hosting (and in that case when)?

[jkbname]

People like myself who want to use Django/Python really need FastCGI (and I'm sure the Ruby on Rails guys would appreciate that, too).

What's the outlook on FastCGI implementation? Do you plan to support FastCGI at all on the shared hosting accounts?

Thanks,
Jonas

[blagoj]

I would like also that too. I suggested lighttpd with fastcgi which is better than the apache's fastcgi.
see also these threads:
http://forums.hostgator.com/fastcgi-t21381.html
http://forums.hostgator.com/lighttpd...gi-t41587.html

[GatorDaveC]

We do have plans with FastCGI as possibly a secondary environment. We have to work out a couple of things before we announce anything though.

We probably won't be able to ever support Lighttpd, as all of our clients are already using Apache, and the changes would be huge. However I am a fan of lighttpd for single sites. Its great if you have a couple of sites. Lighttpd would also be a pain with CPanel.

[jkbname]

Sounds great! Do you have any idea as to when you'll be able to offer this?

[GatorDaveC]

Originally Posted by jkbname

Sounds great! Do you have any idea as to when you'll be able to offer this?

We'll probably have a decision once our Apache 2.x / CentOS migrations are done which will be in about 2 weeks or so.

I think the best way to FastCGI would be to have some basic handlers setup, and if a client wants other ones they can add them etc..

One issue I see with FastCGI, would be support requests to have processes killed in order for Ruby on Rails updates, we really haven't tested it much. I've used it a little bit in the past, and I just installed it on my development server today. We need to figure out a good configuration for processes spawned etc... before we even think about launching it.


The process initialization on Ruby on Rails is ridiculously slow, so having the processes stay spawned with FastCGI would make our Ruby on Rails clients happy with the speed.

[jkbname]

Django would work as well on the setup you envision, right? (Here's how to set up Django with FastCGI: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev...yment/fastcgi/)

[GatorDaveC]

If we setup FastCGI, we would set it up where you could add the handler in htaccess such as the example on that site..

---
AddHandler fastcgi-script .fcgi
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ mysite.fcgi/$1 [QSA,L]
---

[zervouli]

This is really great news, I've been waiting for this since I started my account (2004). I think a lot of people will be happy.

Django will finally be a viable framework to use at Hostgator.

Thanks!

[dustbuster]

I'm really looking forward to FastCGI too.

[jkbname]

What's the status of this?

[GatorDaveC]

We are ready for some FastCGI testing. If you let me know what server you are on, I will install it on your server and let me know how it works out for you.

Basically we were setting it up so the servers won't have thousands of processes running from FastCGI alone.

[GatorPatrick]

If you are interested in beta testing our FastCGI implementation please PM Dave or I

Alternatively you can e-mail me directly: patrick@hostgator.com