Apache Prefork vs Worker MPM

Question

Looking at the Apache config file, I see Prefork and Worker MPM defined. What is the difference and which one is Apache using?

Answer 1

Prefork and worker are two type of MPM apache provides. Both have their merits and demerits.

By default mpm is prefork which is thread safe.

Prefork MPM uses multiple child processes with one thread each and each process handles one connection at a time.

Worker MPM uses multiple child processes with many threads each. Each thread handles one connection at a time.

For more details you can visit https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mpm.html and https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/prefork.html