Today I learned about the (relatively new) realpath_cache_size and realpath_cache_ttl php.ini directives, which were added in PHP 5.1.0.
PHP 5.1.x and up caches the real path of include files, thus avoiding the extra system call when include_once and require_once are used (or at least, this is what I understood – hope I didn’t confuse anything).
Apparently, the cache size is configurable, and if you’re system has lots of RAM, you can increase realpath_cache_size – the default is 16Kbyte, which means you’ll have 16Kbyte of cache per Apache process. Almost every decent production system can handle an additional 16KBytes per process, and as I understand, this could have a positive effect on performance in applications that have lots of include files.
PHP 5.1.x and up caches the real path of include files, thus avoiding the extra system call when include_once and require_once are used (or at least, this is what I understood – hope I didn’t confuse anything).
Apparently, the cache size is configurable, and if you’re system has lots of RAM, you can increase realpath_cache_size – the default is 16Kbyte, which means you’ll have 16Kbyte of cache per Apache process. Almost every decent production system can handle an additional 16KBytes per process, and as I understand, this could have a positive effect on performance in applications that have lots of include files.