I want to use gzip compression in Apache

Question

I want to enable gzip compression for acethehimalaya.com. Can anybody please tell me what is the best way of achieving compression in an Apache Webserver?

Answer 1

You'll want to look into mod_deflate (http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_deflate.html)

Depending on the operating system, but on most Linux-based systems you can do the following:

1. edit the configuration file httpd.conf or similar)
2. if you have a VirtualHost container, add this: SetOutputFilter DEFLATE

3. you can also set directory-specific compression:

   <Directory "/path/to/website">

   AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html

   </Directory>

On the other hand, and probably a more efficient thing, is to use Google's mod_pagespeed (link). In summary, install one of the binaries on the right-side of the page. This will automatically perform updates for you when you run updates on the [server?]. You can compile it yourself as well.

The benefits of mod_pagespeed are that it compresses AND caches your content for you. Thereby reducing CPU usage and bandwidth.

Answer 2

The easiest way to manage Gzip compression in Apache is to add these lines in your .htaccess file:

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
<FilesMatch "\.(html|php|txt|xml|js|css)$">
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</FilesMatch>
</IfModule>

It works well for my website.