28.2. Measuring Performance
Before you can begin optimizing, you must be able to measure performance. There are two easy methods: inserting HTML comments and using Apache's ApacheBench utility. PHP applications run on a Web server, but the overhead added by serving HTML documents over a network should be factored out of your measurements.
You need to isolate the server from other activity, perhaps by barring other users or even disconnecting it from the network. Running tests on a server that's providing a public site may give varying results, as traffic changes during the day. Run your tests on a dedicated server even if the hardware doesn't match the production server. Optimizations made on slower hardware should translate into relative gains ...
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