_          _                   _
  __| |o ___ __| |__ ___  __ _  ___| |__   ___     distcache
 / _` |_/ __|__   __/ __|/ _` |/ __| '_ \ / , \    Distributed session caching
| (_| | \__ \  | | | (__| (_| | (__| | | |  __/    www.distcache.org
 \__,_|_|___/  |_|  \___|\__,_|\___|_| |_|\___|    distcache.sourceforge.net

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                                ``The barbaric attacks of September 11, 2001,
                                  have brought home with great force that we
                                  all share a single planet.''
                                                -- Joseph E. Stiglitz


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
--------------------------------


Q: What does a typical distcache network look like?

A: The most common use of distcache is in an network of apache web-servers. The
   diagram below shows a series of web-servers (serv1, serv2, etc) each running
   a multi-forked apache web-server. Each of these servers runs a single
   instance of the cache client "dc_client", and these all communicate with a
   single instance of the cache server "dc_server" running on a host called
   "cache".

      "serv1.localnet"
 +---------------------------+
 | (Apache server processes) |
 |  httpd  httpd  httpd  ... |
 |    \___   |   __/ ____/   |
 |        \  |  /   /        |
 |    (UNIX:/tmp/dc_client)  |
 |        dc_client -->-->-->|-
 +---------------------------+ \                       "cache.localnet"
                                 IP:cache:9001     +-------------------------+
      "serv2.localnet"                        \    |                         |
 +---------------------------+                 --> | --+                     |
 | (Apache server processes) |                     |   +---- "dc_server"     |
 |  httpd  httpd  httpd  ... |                     |   |          |          |
 |    \___   |   __/ ____/   |                  -> | --+       _--+--_       |
 |        \  |  /   /        |   IP:cache:9001 /   |   |      /       \      |
 |    (UNIX:/tmp/dc_client)  | /                   |   |     |  cache  |     |
 |        dc_client ---------|                     |   |     | storage |     |
 +---------------------------+                ---> | --+      \       /      |
                                             /     |           -_____-       |
             .                              /      |                         |
             . -----------------------------       +-------------------------+
             .

   Each instance of "dc_client" would be started as;
     # dc_client -listen UNIX:/tmp/dc_client \
                 -server IP:cache.localnet:9001 [-daemon]
   The instance of "dc_server" would be started as;
     # dc_server -listen IP:cache.localnet:9001 [-daemon]