Mario

The new way running PHP on apache not as a module but over fcgid can increase the performance on a multicore CPU system and it is possible to run the PHP process not as the apache user (often www-data), but for example as the ftp user. So when apache creates a file the owner is not www-data, but the ftp user.
I’ve seen many setups allowing ExecCGI  for the vhost. That is a bad practice. It is much better allow it only for the needed files.

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.local
    DocumentRoot "/Users/mario/www"
    CustomLog "C:\nul" common
    <IfModule fcgid_module>
        FcgidPassHeader Authorization
        <Files ~ "\.php$">
            Options ExecCGI
            AddHandler fcgid-script .php
            FcgidWrapper "C:/users/mario/php5/php-cgi.exe" .php
        </Files>
    </IfModule>
    <Directory "/Users/mario/www>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

With the module it was possible to highlight PHP file with x-httpd-php-source. That option is not available with fcgid. So I had to think how to enable with but not going back to the module which often crashed my apache.

What works is to use the php parameters on the command line.

        <Files ~ "\.phps$">
            Options ExecCGI
            AddHandler fcgid-script .php
            FcgidWrapper "C:/users/mario/php5/php-cgi.exe -s" .php
        </Files>

A full example on Windows.

<IfModule fcgid_module>
    FcgidConnectTimeout 10
    FcgidMaxProcesses 300
    FcgidMaxProcessesPerClass 300
    FcgidOutputBufferSize 64
    ProcessLifeTime 0
    FcgidMaxRequestsPerProcess 0
    FcgidMinProcessesPerClass 0
    FcgidFixPathinfo 0
    FcgidProcessLifeTime 0
    FcgidZombieScanInterval 20
    FcgidMaxRequestLen 536870912
    FcgidIOTimeout 120
    FcgidTimeScore 3
</IfModule>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.local
    DocumentRoot "/Users/mario/www"
    CustomLog "C:\nul" common
    <IfModule fcgid_module>
        FcgidInitialEnv PHPRC "C:\\Users\mario\\php5"
        FcgidInitialEnv PATH "C:\\Users\mario\\php5;C:\\WINDOWS\\system32;C:\\WINDOWS;C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\Wbem;"
        FcgidInitialEnv SystemRoot "C:\\Windows"
        FcgidInitialEnv SystemDrive "C:"
        FcgidInitialEnv TEMP "C:\\WINDOWS\\TEMP"
        FcgidInitialEnv TMP "C:\\WINDOWS\\TEMP"
        FcgidInitialEnv windir "C:\\WINDOWS"
        FcgidPassHeader Authorization
        <Files ~ "\.php$">
            Options ExecCGI
            AddHandler fcgid-script .php
            FcgidWrapper "C:/users/mario/php5/php-cgi.exe" .php
        </Files>
        <Files ~ "\.phps$">
            Options ExecCGI
            AddHandler fcgid-script .php
            FcgidWrapper "C:/users/mario/php5/php-cgi.exe -s" .php
        </Files>
    </IfModule>
    <Directory "/Users/mario/www>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

On Linux is is just a little different

FCGIWrapper /usr/bin/php5-cgi .php

and only

FcgidPassHeader Authorization

It is a pain in the ass to set a bunch of IP adresses in each vhost or where ever you need it. But with Apache 2.4 it is quiet easy to have a global list and use that anywhere in your config.

Define BADIPS "188.40 46.4 176.9 46.166 46.21 78.46 91.207.7.21 0.0.0.0 91.207.7.182"
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName mariobrandt.de
    ServerAlias www.mariobrandt.de
    DocumentRoot /var/www/
    FileETag MTime Size
    <Directory /var/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Multiviews ExecCGI
        AllowOverride None
    <RequireAll>
    Require all granted
    Require not ip ${BADIPS}
    </RequireAll>
        AddHandler fcgid-script .php
        FCGIWrapper /usr/bin/php5-cgi .php
    </Directory>
    ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/mario_error.log
    LogLevel warn

    CustomLog /var/log/apache2/mario_access.log combined

</VirtualHost>