How-To: Compiling XCache from Source
January 30, 2007 by Jason · 27 Comments
For those of you that are not running RPM-based distros, you're probably feeling a bit left out. Up until now, all of my tutorials have dealt with upgrading RPM-based distros. Well, that ends here. I'm going to walk through the fairly simple process of compiling and installing XCache for httpd from the original source.
The current stable release of XCache is 1.0.3. The "Unstable" release, made for PHP 5.1 & 5.2, is 1.2.0. Despite the label, I have not found anything "unstable" about the 1.2.0 version. That said, there have been a few issues reported on the vBulletin forums for users of PHP 4. If you are running PHP 4, I'd recommend that you use 1.0.3, just to be safe. Now, down to the work.
Assuming that you already have a full development environment on your system (gcc, gcc-c++, make, php-devel, etc.), the first thing you'll need to do is to download the source tarball to your computer. Pick the version you want and then continue to the next step.
- XCache 1.0.3 - PHP 4.x
- XCache 1.2.1 - PHP 4.x, 5.1 & 5.2
Once you've downloaded the source pacakge to your server, unpack it and then enter the "xcache" directory that was just created. At this point, you'll want to run the following commands. Even a slow system should be done within 1 or 2 minutes, so don't go anywhere.
- phpize
- ./configure --enable-xcache
- make
- make install
NOTE: There are supposed to be two (2) "-" characters before "enable-xcache" but WordPress seems to be mangling them...
The output of "make install" is very important as it lets you know where the compiled module was installed. Make sure that you remember or write down that string.
Now that the xcache.so module is installed, you'll need to configure it. If your install of PHP parses the /etc/php.d/ folder then you should create a file in that folder called "xcache.ini". If not, just open your php.ini file and paste in the following:
[xcache-common]
zend_extension = /usr/lib/php4/xcache.so; required for >=php5.1 if you turn XCache on
auto_globals_jit = Off[xcache.admin]
xcache.admin.user = "admin"
; paste the output of md5("password") below
xcache.admin.pass = ""[xcache]
xcache.size = 32M
xcache.count = 1
xcache.slots = 8K
xcache.mmap_path = "/dev/zero"
xcache.cacher = On
Based on your configuration, you may want to make a few changes. If "/usr/lib/php4" was not where "make install" claimed to have installed the xcache.so module, change it. Likewise, if your system has multiple processors (count logical cores from Hyper-Threading), change the value of "xcache.count". Finally, if you plan to use the web admin interface, you'll need to fill in "xcache.admin.pass". This value should be a MD5 of the password you want to use (if you need an MD5 generator, try this one).
If you filled in the password, you should also copy the contents of the "admin" folder from the "xcache" source folder to somewhere web-accessible. No changes need to be made and the "config.php.example" file should be left as-is.
At this point, all that's left is to restart httpd and you should be good. Check your phpinfo() once you've restarted httpd to make sure that xcache is listed.
UPDATE: Version 1.2.x is now considered "stable" and the current release is up to 1.2.1.
Hello
Im on plesk and i have a problem with phpize, how can I activate or install it?
Thank you đŸ™‚
Install the 'php-devel' package.
Hey Jason,
Firstly, thanks for your great guides!, and I hope you can help me out.
For the last week or so, I have spent a long time trying to install APC, eaccelerator, and now XCache.
I am running a CentOS4.4 from mediatemple (http://www.mediatemple.net/webhosting/dv/techspecs.htm). I have managed to build the *.so files but yet they do not load properly. I think this might be from an error when I run phpize.
On the XCache package when running "phpize" I recive the following error.
[[email protected] xcache]# phpize
configure.in:9: warning: underquoted definition of PHP_WITH_PHP_CONFIG
run info '(automake)Extending aclocal'
or see http://sources.redhat.com/automake/automake.html#Extending-aclocal
configure.in:32: warning: underquoted definition of PHP_EXT_BUILDDIR
configure.in:33: warning: underquoted definition of PHP_EXT_DIR
configure.in:34: warning: underquoted definition of PHP_EXT_SRCDIR
configure.in:35: warning: underquoted definition of PHP_ALWAYS_SHARED
acinclude.m4:19: warning: underquoted definition of PHP_PROG_RE2C
/usr/share/aclocal/libgcrypt.m4:23: warning: underquoted definition of AM_PATH_LIBGCRYPT
Configuring for:
PHP Api Version: 20020918
Zend Module Api No: 20020429
Zend Extension Api No: 20021010
I think it might be something to do with libtool / libgcrypt, but im not sure. Im a total centos / linux newbie :/. I tried to install libgcrpyt, I think I did but in not too sure.
Also, last question, when I type "php -v" I receive the message.
PHP 4.3.9 (cgi) (built: Nov 7 2006 05:00:50)
Copyright (c) 1997-2004 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v1.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2004 Zend Technologies
I hope as it says cgi this is okay, I read about fcgi.
I am sorry to bombard you with all this Jason, but im very much stuck, and hoping you can help me out.
Thanks very much.
Warnings are OK, errors are not. What happens when you run "make"? Does it compile without errors? How about "make install"? It should tell you where it was installed. Once it does, you should verify that the file is actually there and make sure that the code I pasted in the post references the correct path.
Assuming that you don't have any errors at that point you might want to check your phpinfo() from a web page as sometimes there are different config files for the different binary versions of PHP.
Many thanks for your reply Jason. Interestingly enough, I was watching for errors and I didn't see any, and this time it worked. That makes no sense as it's exactly what I did the last time and for APC.
I have noticed something strange though, when I increase the size, it throws an error, httpd do not spawn and i said something about shm error. When the size is at 32mb it is fine.
But I am filling up my cache in about 2mins, and all I get now are clogs. If I can increase my space somewhat I will, but I think it will get full quickly. Is there a way to remove less frequently used files or a time limit? I saw the TTL setting, but am not sure what would be a good value.
Can I try 1.2.0 or is that only for php5? im running 4.3.9. Many thanks for the help Jason
Sorry to spam your comments like this, feel free to delete đŸ™‚
I updated the version, and all looks good so far. im getting clogs, but a lot less, and the hits continue to rise now.
54,000 hits to 4,000 misses.
Cheers
Clogs occur when multiple files need to be inserted into the cache at the same time. These are normal for the first couple minutes after startup.
As to the misses, that is not normal unless you have 4000 files (because each file cached is a miss the first time around).
Regarding your problem with caching more than 32MB, what is xcache.count set to? You might try increasing that at the same time as you increase the size (there may be some kind of allocation limit on your system).
Finally, as to TTL, you'd want to set xcache.ttl to the upper limit on stale cache entries and then xcache.gc_interval to a number in the range of 1/4-1/2 of ttl (I use 900 & 300 respectively).
Thanks for the great info Jason. I think there was a problem with XCache 1.0.3 for me, the 32mb limit and rising clogs and frozen hits.
With 1.2.0 things seem well. I have the size set on 80mb, this is giving me current stats of 487,935 hits, 28,360 Misses. My cache is 100% full giving me 816 cached files and 27,543 OOMs.
I guess I would need to increase my cache size even more to cache the other files and give me less misses / OOMs, but I think 80mb is max for my server ram. The hit / miss ratio seems nice enough for me, and server load has dropped.
As for your question my xcache.count is currently set to 1.
Thank you for the information about TTL I was curious as to what good settings would be for this, I will try your recommended settings.
PHP Fatal error: Failed creating file mappping in Unknown on line 0
PHP Fatal error: XCache: Cannot create shm in Unknown on line 0
PHP Fatal error: XCache: Cannot init in Unknown on line 0
PHP Fatal error: Unable to start XCache module in Unknown on line 0
Any idea why I get this error when I try
php-cgi -v
And when I look at it does not show that it parses xcache.ini
Please help
@Matt
If you are using PHP 5.2 then you should be using 1.2. PHP 4 users can try 1.0.3. As to the high number of OOMs you've received, I'd say that you need to either increase the memory limit or change the TTL value to remove unused entries.
@Curtis
That's really not enough info to go on. Some PHP installs have different ini files for the different binary packages. Some also don't parse external ini files (like the one provided in my src.rpm). Try copying the content from your xcache.ini file directly into the php.ini file that is referenced in a phpinfo().
In which directory do i have to unpack xcache? im newbie in linux
[[email protected] xcache]# phpize
bash: phpize: command not found
Ok, done with "yum install php-devel" đŸ™‚
But now:
[[email protected] xcache]# ./configure –enable-xcache –enable-xcache-optimizer
configure: WARNING: you should use --build, --host, --target
configure: WARNING: invalid host type: –enable-xcache
configure: WARNING: you should use --build, --host, --target
configure: WARNING: invalid host type: –enable-xcache-optimizer
checking build system type... Invalid configuration `–enable-xcache': machine `–enable' not recognized
configure: error: /bin/sh ./config.sub –enable-xcache failed
[[email protected] xcache]#
Finally worjked eith:
$ ./configure --enable-xcache
Thanx a lot .. i justinstalled at my site http://www.lazydesis.com
will reply back again if i see any performance increase
Hi,
I am getting the following error while giving the command ./configure –enable-xcache. I am using php 5.2.3 and am compiling xcache from source.
*********************************
[email protected] [/usr/src/xcache]# ./configure –enable-xcache
configure: WARNING: you should use --build, --host, --target
configure: WARNING: invalid host type: –enable-xcache
checking for egrep... grep -E
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking for –enable-xcache-gcc... no
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking whether gcc and cc understand -c and -o together... yes
checking if compiler supports -R... no
checking if compiler supports -Wl,-rpath,... yes
checking build system type... Invalid configuration `–enable-xcache': machine `–enable' not recognized
configure: error: /bin/sh ./config.sub –enable-xcache failed
*********************************
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you
Regards,
Manuel
Make sure that you're passing "--enable-xcache" with two "-" at the front, not just one. I think WordPress screws those up so I'll add a little note up in the post.
Jason,
We have tried installing the latest version of Xcache onto a client's VPS server for them.
We followed all the instructions at: http://xcache.lighttpd.net/wiki/InstallFromSource
Now if we run a php -v, we get the following output:
PHP 5.2.3 (cli) (built: Aug 23 2007 20:21:09)
Copyright (c) 1997-2007 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2007 Zend Technologies
with Zend Extension Manager v1.2.0, Copyright (c) 2003-2006, by Zend Technologies
with Zend Optimizer v3.2.2, Copyright (c) 1998-2006, by Zend Technologies
Xcache does not seem to be running?
If we try to run/use admin via HTTP, we cat the following:
XCache is not loaded
Please check /usr/local/Zend/etc/php.ini
Could you explain what we might be doing wrong? or where we should be looking?
Regards,
Dale Evans
Have you checked your php.ini file to see if the xcache config entries are in there? Have you verified that the path specified in the php.ini to load the xcache.so extension is correct? Are there any errors in your httpd error_log? Have you tried disabling the Zend Optimizer to see if XCache loads properly then? If so, try loading XCache before Zend.
Thank you, Jason,
I tried many tutorial but yours is the best.
It helped me to install Xcache properly on my new site: http://phim88.com
I see good amount of load reduce,
Thanks Jason, Thanks Xcache đŸ˜‰
Help
checking for dlfcn.h... yes
checking for g++... no
checking for c++... no
checking for gpp... no
checking for aCC... no
checking for CC... no
checking for cxx... no
checking for cc++... no
checking for cl... no
checking for FCC... no
checking for KCC... no
checking for RCC... no
checking for xlC_r... no
checking for xlC... no
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... no
checking whether g++ accepts -g... no
checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... /lib/cpp
configure: error: C++ preprocessor "/lib/cpp" fails sanity check
See `config.log' for more details.
@Gizmo,
Looks like you don't have a compiler installed. Check the 'config.log' file for more info.
Hi
great tutorial, but im getting the following error in apache error_log:
Failed loading /home/xpto/data/lib/php/xcache.so: /home/xpto/data/lib/php/xcache.so: undefined symbol: OnUpdateInt
Any idea of what might been wrong?
Thanks
phpize --clean seems to work on a clean new build.
Gizmo,
You may need to check the C++ compiler
Thanks for the info...I just installed on my site and will let you if the performance has increased or not...