This talk will introduce the audience to the new mod_lua module for the Apache HTTP Server, which enables administrators and users to use the Lua programming language to extend the Apache HTTP Server in many exciting ways.
With the launch of the Apache HTTP Server version 2.4, a new module, mod_lua, has been introduced, which enables administrators and users to use the Lua programming language to extend the web servers capabilities as well as write web applications. It is roughly comparable to mod_perl and mod_python, but with a much greater performance and far less memory usage. mod_lua allows you to rewrite requests, add custom authentication and authorization functions, write web applications in Lua, perform caching operations, input/output filtering of requests, advanced request mapping, as well as interact with the httpd API, with a speed that sometimes rivals that of regular modules written in C. The talk will introduce the Lua programming language, analyze and compare the Lua programming language to other languages and modules, and look at the many ways in which one can interact with the Apache HTTP Server through Lua, as well as showcase the many exciting new features available in the trunk of httpd. If you have previously used perl, python or php for programming and interacting with httpd, you will certainly be interested in what mod_lua has to offer.