# WSGILazyInitialization

Description: | Enable/disable lazy initialisation of Python.
Syntax: | `WSGILazyInitialization On|Off`
Default: | `WSGILazyInitialization On`
Context: | server config

The WSGILazyInitialization directives sets whether or not the Python interpreter is preinitialised within the Apache parent process or whether lazy initialisation is performed, and the Python interpreter only initialised in the Apache server processes or mod_wsgi daemon processes after they have forked from the Apache parent process.

In versions of mod_wsgi prior to version 3.0 the Python interpreter was always preinitialised in the Apache parent process. This did mean that theoretically some benefit in memory usage could be derived from delayed copy on write semantics of memory inherited by child processes that was initialised in the parent. This memory wasn’t significant however and was tempered by the fact that the Python interpreter when destroyed and then reinitialised in the Apache parent process on an Apache restart, would with some Python versions leak memory. This meant that if a server had many restarts performed, the Apache parent process and thus all forked child processes could grow in memory usage over time, eventually necessitating Apache be completely stopped and then restarted.

This issue of memory leaks with the Python interpreter reached an extreme with Python 3.0, where by design, various data structures would not be destroyed on the basis that it would be reused when Python interpreter was reinitialised within the same process. The problem is that when an Apache restart is performed, mod_wsgi and the Python library are unloaded from memory, with the result that the references to that memory would be lost and so a real memory leak, of significant size and much worse that older versions of Python, would result.

As a consequence, with mod_wsgi 3.0 and onwards, the Python interpreter is not initialised by default in the Apache parent process for any version of Python. This avoids completely the risk of cummulative memory leaks by the Python interpreter on a restart into the Apache parent process, albeit with potential for a slight increase in child process memory sizes. If need be, the existing behaviour can be restored by setting the directive with the value ‘Off’.

A further upside of using lazy initialisation is that if you are using daemon mode only, ie., not using embedded mode, you can completely turn off initialisation of the Python interpreter within the main Apache server child process. Unfortunately, because it isn’t possible in the general case to know whether embedded mode will be needed or not, you will need to manually set the configuration to do this. This can be done by setting:

    WSGIRestrictEmbedded On

With restrictions on embedded mode enabled, any attempt to run a WSGI application in embedded mode will fail, so it will be necessary to ensure all WSGI applications are delegated to run in daemon mode. Although WSGI applications will be restricted from being run in embedded mode and the Python interpreter therefore not initialised, it will fallback to being initialised if you use any of the Python hooks for access control, authentication or authorisation providers, or WSGI application dispatch overrides.

Note that if mod_python is being used in the same Apache installation, because mod_python takes precedence over mod_wsgi in initialising the Python interpreter, lazy initialisation cannot be done and so Python interpreter will continue to be preinitialised in the Apache parent process regardless of the setting of WSGILazyInitialization. Use of mod_python will thus perpetuate the risk of memory leaks and growing memory use of Apache process. This is especially the case since mod_python doesn’t even properly destroy the Python interpreter in the Apache parent process on a restart and so all memory associated with the Python interpreter is leaked and not just that caused by the Python interpreter when it is destroyed and doesn’t clean up after itself.