Mod-Cache

I recently tried out Mod-Cache, a cache(reverse-proxy) accelerator plugin for Lighttpd, and I must say I was impressed with its performance. It works in a similar manner to Squid, with a comparable configuration; however, Mod-Cache proves to be faster and more effective thanks to the powerful capabilities of Lighttpd.

One of the key advantages of Mod-Cache over Squid is its simplicity. It merely sets the appropriate flags between Lighttpd's request handling stages, thereby allowing the request to be processed by other modules such as mod_staticfile or mod_compress. This simplicity is enhanced by Mod-Cache's ability to work with other Lighttpd plugins (with the exception of mod_deflate), which makes it far more powerful and versatile.

Another significant advantage of Mod-Cache over its Squid counterpart is its robustness. Mod-Cache uses a disk file instead of memory as its caching mechanism. This means that it is less prone to memory leaks and exhaustion, thereby ensuring that your system remains stable and efficient.

In terms of speed, Mod-Cache outperforms Squid by utilizing Lighttpd's Sendfile syscall to service disk files. This syscall writes the file to the network interface directly and has the same efficiency as the Writev syscall, which writes memory buffers to the network interface.

Lastly, Mod-Cache is faster and more powerful thanks to its ability to work with other Lighttpd plugins. For example, you can use mod_compress to compress cached files on-the-fly, mod_access/mod_trigger_b4_dl to protect against hot-linking, or mod_flv_streaming for native flv file streaming.

Overall, I would highly recommend Mod-Cache for anyone looking for a fast, efficient, and powerful cache accelerator plugin for Lighttpd.