.htaccess caching

[David Robinson <dr...@ast.cam.ac.uk>]

I've written a patch which makes Apache cache the result of reading .htaccess
files for the duration of a request. This data can be re-used in the
event of an internal redirection (such as
http://host/ -> http://host/index.html) or a sub-request
(<--!#include, mod_negotiation etc)

In some cases, this halves the total server response time; for example,
if you're using Solaris then the time taken to access a file controlled by the
automounter that doesn't exist (e.g. /home/.htaccess) is significant.

66.htaccess-cache.patch
  Subject: Cache .htaccess files for the duration of a request
  Affects: httpd.h, http_request.c, http_config.c
  ChangeLog: Cache the contents of .htaccess file for the duration of a
             request.
  Comments: The cached data is reused by sub-requests or internal redirects;
            even when cacheing a single .htaccess file, the overhead
            of an xxx/ -> xxx/index.html redirection is halved.


 David.