Page loading problem with Apache mod_fastcgi and mod_deflate

[stefan@…]

It seems that trac.fcgi does not work well with Apache's mod_deflate. I have the following setup with Apache 2.2.9, mod_fastcgi, on Debian lenny:

AliasMatch /trac/[^/]+/chrome/common/(.*) /usr/local/share/trac/htdocs/common/$1
AliasMatch /trac/([^/]+)/chrome/site/(.*) /srv/trac/$1/htdocs/$2
<Directory "/usr/local/share/htdocs">
  Order allow,deny
  Allow from all
</Directory>

ScriptAlias /trac /usr/local/share/trac/cgi-bin/trac.fcgi
<Location /trac>
  SetEnv TRAC_ENV_PARENT_DIR "/srv/trac"
</Location>
<LocationMatch "/trac/[^/]+/login">
  AuthType Basic
  AuthName "Trac"
  AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/svn-auth.conf
  Require valid-user
</LocationMatch>

At first glance all works well but even after the page appears completely rendered the browser keeps on loading. In a forum someone posted that deactivating mod_deflate would solve the problem which I can confirm. As I have not found any relevant information in the trac ticket system I file it here.

Using wireshark I found out that I don't get the http response codes from the server, they appear in the server's log though. After turning off mod_deflate everything works perfect.

[anonymous]

It turns out that it's not a trac bug but a problem related to the specific combination of the two Apache modules involved. See  http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=509116.

[cboos]

Thanks for letting us know!

It would be nice to know which versions of Apache/mod_fastcgi or mod_deflate fix the issue, or if the only solution so far is to disable mod_deflate.

[anonymous]

Replying to cboos:

Thanks for letting us know!

It would be nice to know which versions of Apache/mod_fastcgi or mod_deflate fix the issue, or if the only solution so far is to disable mod_deflate.

In the Debian bug system's thread linked above they say that there are patches for mod_fastcgi in upstream but not in the packages and that mod_fcgid does not have the issue. The latter is a replacement for mod_fastcgi. Beware that it has a different configuration.