Difference between mod_deflate and zlib output_compression

php apache .htaccess zlib mod-deflate
fire picture fire · Apr 14, 2010 · Viewed 9.4k times · Source

Can anyone tell me the difference between using mod_deflate and zlib output_compression?

I understand that zlib is done in PHP and mod_deflate is done in Apace, my .htaccess file looks like:

php_flag zlib.output_compression On

or:

SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
BrowserMatch \bMSI[E] !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \
\.(?:gif|jpe?g|png|gif)$ no-gzip dont-vary
Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary

Advantages/disadvantages of either?

Answer

dave1010 picture dave1010 · Apr 14, 2010

As far as I know they both compress the same amount as zlib.output_compression uses gzip, which is based on DEFLATE.

PHP's zlib output_compression will only work files passed through the PHP handler (i.e. .php files), but Apache's mod_deflate can work on any files (eg static CSS or JS).

Related questions

Getting a 500 Internal Server Error on Laravel 5+ Ubuntu 14.04

I have installed Laravel many times on Windows OS but it never occurred this type of problem. This 500 internal server usually occurs when your "mod_rewrite" module is not turned on. However, on Ubuntu 14.04 this problem is giving me a …

Read More
Directory index forbidden by Options directive

I'm using the dompdf plugin for codeigniter: http://codeigniter.com/wiki/PDF_generation_using_dompdf/ to generate pdfs from a form. This works on localhost, but on the live server I get this in the error log: Directory index forbidden …

Read More
deny direct access to a folder and file by htaccess

Here is the scenario: There is a index.php file in root folder some files are included in index.php which are in the includes folder. 1 other file (submit.php) is in the root folder for form submit action. I …

Read More