Php handling vs Apache RewriteRules and RegExp: which one is quicker?

I've already read this but it doesn't answer to my question.

Here's my scenario: I've been working on my own framework which I'm proud of (multilanguage, templating, and so on). But I had to face one problem: the multilanguage and template handling was done in Php. 800 lines of code, analyze host to see where to look to read the templates and so on. It was messy and I'm pretty sure it wasn't efficient though I didn't test its efficiency. It was dealing with lot of array (array_push(), array_key_exists() and so on)

I've rewritten the whole Php file, now it create its own "cache" file, and almost all the work is done by Apache before going to the Php file. The Php file only analyzes what's in the _GET.

But I'm worrying about one thing: are RegExp fast? In my previous Php file, I was playing a lot with array_xx() function, but there were absolutely no Apache RewriteRules before.

I don't know about RegExp performance, and I don't know about Apache RewriteRules and the time it takes to initialize environment variables. I do this a lot (see after). So, maybe, after those explanations, someone could tell me either "no problem, your RegExp are not complex, Apache handles this quickly", or "stop this immediately, you may get in trouble with RegExp" and so on.

This is kinddof advices and warnings about performance on "Apache RegExp RewriteRules" and "Php handling URLs instead of Apache".

Here are all my RewriteRule, and I'm just wondering whether they may slow down my Apache Webserver more than my previous Php file.

RewriteMap maprns dbm:/rns.map
RewriteMap mapdps dbm:/dps.map
RewriteMap mapcts dbm:/cts.map
RewriteMap ts dbm:/ts.map
RewriteRule /404.php - [QSA,E=PLOCAL:${ts:www\.}]
RewriteCond %{ENV:PLOCAL} ^default\.([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)\.$
RewriteRule /404.php - [QSA,E=L:%1,E=PLOCAL:${ts:%1\.}]
RewriteCond %{ENV:PLOCAL} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+\.)+([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)\.+(fr|com|net|org|eu)$
RewriteRule (.*) /404.php?L=%{ENV:L}&Pt=%{ENV:PLOCAL}&Pt_cm=${ts:cm.}&h_static=%{ENV:L}.s.%2.%3 [QSA,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ((([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)\.)+)(s|static)\.(([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+\.)+)([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)\.+(fr|com|net|org|eu)$
RewriteRule (.*) - [QSA,E=L:%3,E=PLOCAL:${ts:%1%5|notfound},E=Pcm:${ts:cm.%5},E=STATIC:1]
RewriteCond %{ENV:PLOCAL} ^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ((([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)\.)+)(s|static)\.([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)\.+(fr|com|net|org|eu)$
RewriteRule (.*) - [QSA,E=L:%3,E=PLOCAL:${ts:%1|notfound},E=Pcm:${ts:cm.},E=STATIC:1]
RewriteCond %{ENV:PLOCAL} ^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} (([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)\.)((([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)\.)+)([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)\.+(fr|com|net|org|eu)$
RewriteRule (.*) - [QSA,E=L:%2,E=PLOCAL:${ts:%1%3|notfound},E=Pcm:${ts:cm.%3}]
RewriteCond %{ENV:PLOCAL} ^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} (([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)\.)([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)\.+(fr|com|net|org|eu)$
RewriteRule (.*) - [QSA,E=L:%2,E=PLOCAL:${ts:%1|notfound},E=Pcm:${ts:cm.}]
RewriteCond %{ENV:PLOCAL} ^default\.([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)\.(([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+\.)+)
RewriteRule (.*) - [QSA,E=L:%1,E=PLOCAL:${ts:%1\.%2|notfound},E=Pcm:${ts:cm.%2}]
RewriteCond %{ENV:PLOCAL} ^default\.([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)\.$
RewriteRule (.*) - [QSA,E=L:%1,E=PLOCAL:${ts:%1\.|notfound},E=Pcm:${ts:cm.}]
RewriteCond %{ENV:PLOCAL} ^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{ENV:PLOCAL} notfound
RewriteRule .* - [R=404,L]
RewriteRule (.*) $1?L=%{ENV:L}&Plocal=%{ENV:PLOCAL}&Pcm=%{ENV:Pcm} [QSA]
RewriteCond %{ENV:STATIC} !^$
RewriteRule (.*)(\.(css|js|pdf|jpg|jpeg|gif|png)){1}$ $1$2 [QSA,E=EXT:$3]
RewriteCond %{ENV:EXT} (jpg|jpeg|gif|png)
RewriteRule (.*) - [QSA,E=EXT:img]
RewriteCond %{ENV:STATIC} !^$
RewriteCond %{ENV:EXT} !([a-z]+)
RewriteRule .* - [L,R=404]
RewriteCond %{ENV:STATIC} !^$
RewriteCond %{ENV:EXT} (css|js)$
RewriteRule (.*) /%1.php?%1=$1&static=1 [QSA,L]
RewriteCond %{ENV:STATIC} !^$
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%{ENV:PLOCAL}/%{ENV:EXT}%{REQUEST_FILENAME}  -f
RewriteRule  ^(.+) %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%{ENV:PLOCAL}/%{ENV:EXT}%{REQUEST_FILENAME} [QSA,L]
RewriteCond %{ENV:STATIC} !^$
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%{ENV:Pcm}/%{ENV:EXT}%{REQUEST_FILENAME}  -f
RewriteRule  ^(.+) %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%{ENV:Pcm}/%{ENV:EXT}%{REQUEST_FILENAME} [QSA,L]
RewriteCond %{ENV:STATIC} !^$
RewriteRule .* - [L,R=404]
RewriteRule ^/$ /index.php [QSA,L]
RewriteRule /d-envoyer-lte-par-mail/ /d_envoyer_lte_par_mail.php [QSA,L]
RewriteRule /d-creer-editer/ /d_creer_editer.php [QSA,L]
RewriteRule /d-mail-ver/(.*)/$ /d_mail_ver.php?chaine_vation=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule /d-mail-ver/ /d_mail_ver.php [QSA,L]
RewriteRule /i/lg/$ /i/lg.php [QSA,L]
RewriteRule /i/lg-ver/$ /i/lg_ver.php [QSA,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^s\.(.*) [NC]
RewriteRule /contact-([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)-([a-z0-9]+)\.png$ /d_image_telephone.php?no=$1&id=$2&chaine_vation=$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.*) [NC]
RewriteRule /d-contact/numero-([0-9]+)-([a-z0-9]+)/$ /d_message.php?id=$1&chaine_vation=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^/d-(dtl|ann)/offre/(.*)/$ /d-$1/$2/$3?d_type=1 [QSA,NC]
RewriteRule ^/d-(dtl|ann)/demande/(.*)/$ /d-$1/$2/$3?d_type=2 [QSA,NC]
RewriteRule ^/d-dtl/(.*)/numero-([0-9]+)/$ /d-dtl/?val_ct=$1&id=$2 [QSA,NC,E=ct:${mapcts:$1|notfound}]
RewriteRule ^/d-ann/(.*)/numero-([0-9]+)-([a-z0-9]+)/$ /d-ann/?val_ct=$1&id=$2&chaine_ann=$3 [QSA,NC,E=ct:${mapcts:$1|notfound}]
RewriteCond %{ENV:ct} ([0-9]+)
RewriteRule /d-(dtl|ann)/ /d_$1.php?ct=%{ENV:ct} [QSA,NC,L]
RewriteRule ^/d/offres/(rn|dp|ct)/(.*)/$ /d/$1/$2/?d_type=1 [QSA,NC]
RewriteRule ^/d/demandes/(rn|dp|ct)/(.*)/$ /d/$1/$2/?d_type=2 [QSA,NC]
RewriteRule ^/d/(.*)/d-([0-9]+)-a-([0-9]+)/$ /d/$1/$2/?start=$3&end=$4 [QSA,NC]
RewriteRule ^/d/rn/([a-z\-\_0-9]+)/(.*)/$ /d/$2/?val_rn=$1 [QSA,NC,E=rn:${maprns:$1|notfound}]
RewriteRule ^/d/rn/(.*)/$ /d/?val_rn=$1 [QSA,NC,E=rn:${maprns:$1|notfound}]
RewriteRule ^/d/dp/(.*)/$ /d/?val_dp=$1 [QSA,NC,E=dp:${mapdps:$1|notfound}]
RewriteRule ^/d/ct/(.*)/$ /d/?val_ct=$1 [QSA,NC,E=ct:${mapcts:$1|notfound}]
RewriteCond %{ENV:rn} notfound [OR]
RewriteCond %{ENV:dp} notfound [OR]
RewriteCond %{ENV:ct} notfound
RewriteRule .* - [L,R=404]
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} /d/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !start=(.+)
RewriteRule (.*) $1?start=1 [NC,QSA]
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} /d/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !end=(.+)
RewriteRule (.*) $1?end=20 [NC,QSA]
RewriteCond %{ENV:rn} ([0-9]+) [OR]
RewriteCond %{ENV:dp} ([0-9]+) [OR]
RewriteCond %{ENV:ct} ([0-9]+)
RewriteRule /d/ /d_lte.php?rn=%{ENV:rn}&dp=%{ENV:dp}&ct=%{ENV:ct} [QSA,L]
RewriteRule .* - [L开发者_StackOverflow中文版,R=404]

It will depend on your servers, memory, etc. The only way to know for sure is to run a performance benchmark, take a look at httperf for one.

Subjectively, I can tell you that we have about 450 lines of rewrite rules in our .htaccess at work, and while it's always best to have as little as possible, the rewrite rules are NOT the bottleneck of the application by far (and we serve some thousands of requests per second).

So, with that in mind, I wouldn't worry too much about it. You're more likely to run into problems with unoptimized databases, insufficient caching, and many other things, before you get to the point where rewrite rules are the slowest part of your system.

Your rewrite rule set does seem kind of disorganized, so I would try to spend some time organizing it into a more meaningful url structure (and add 301 redirects from old URL's). You can look into how routing is handled in common HMVC frameworks like Kohana, Codeigniter, or Symfony.

For performance and server platform portability you should have Apache rewrite to your index.php then try to mitigate your complex path/request handling to PHP using $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'].

I would do something like this in PHP.

$uri = 'http://'.$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
$request = parse_url($uri);

Then you can play around with $request and extract/handle it any way you want.

Best idea is to put that into the apache vhost/httpd config file. Then its only parsed once and only executed which is indeed faster then in the .htaccess file!