LiteHttpd Engine

What is LiteHttpd?

LiteHttpd is an enhanced distribution of OpenLiteSpeed that combines four key improvements into a single, production-ready web server:

OpenLiteSpeed Core

High-performance event-driven web server with HTTP/3 and QUIC support as the foundation.

.htaccess Module

Full .htaccess parsing engine supporting 80+ directives, enabling drop-in Apache compatibility.

Kernel Patches

Optimized kernel-level tuning for connection handling, file I/O, and memory management on EL9/EL10.

Config Converter

Built-in litehttpd-confconv tool that translates Apache httpd.conf to native LiteHttpd configuration.

Performance Benchmarks

LiteHttpd delivers significant performance gains over Apache while maintaining full compatibility. The following benchmarks were conducted on a 4-core / 8GB EL9 server with default configurations:

Static File Serving (requests/sec)

File Size	Apache 2.4	Stock OLS 1.8	LiteHttpd	LiteHttpd vs Apache
1 KB	18,200	42,500	45,800	2.5x
10 KB	15,600	38,200	41,300	2.6x
100 KB	8,400	19,800	21,500	2.6x
1 MB	2,100	4,900	5,200	2.5x

PHP Processing (WordPress requests/sec)

Scenario	Apache + php-fpm	Stock OLS + LSAPI	LiteHttpd + LSAPI	LiteHttpd vs Apache
Homepage	285	410	420	1.5x
WP Admin	145	205	215	1.5x
WooCommerce Cart	95	140	148	1.6x
REST API	380	530	550	1.4x

Note

LiteHttpd’s edge over stock OpenLiteSpeed comes primarily from the kernel patches and optimized .htaccess parsing. The PHP performance advantage over Apache is due to the LSAPI protocol, which both OLS and LiteHttpd share.

Latency (p99, milliseconds)

Scenario	Apache + php-fpm	LiteHttpd + LSAPI
Static 1 KB	12 ms	4 ms
WordPress Homepage	85 ms	58 ms
WooCommerce Cart	210 ms	135 ms

PHP-LiteSpeed SAPI (LSAPI)

LiteHttpd uses the LSAPI protocol to communicate with PHP, which provides significant advantages over the traditional php-fpm approach:

• 30% fewer context switches — LSAPI uses persistent connections with shared memory, eliminating the per-request fork/connect overhead of php-fpm
• Built-in opcode cache awareness — LSAPI processes share the OPcache segment directly
• Automatic process management — LiteHttpd manages PHP child processes natively, no separate php-fpm pool configuration needed
• Graceful restarts — PHP workers are recycled without dropping in-flight requests

Tip

All PHP versions installed via LLStack (7.4 through 8.4) use the php-litespeed SAPI package from the REMI repository. No manual LSAPI configuration is required.

.htaccess Compatibility

LiteHttpd supports 80+ Apache .htaccess directives, covering the vast majority of real-world usage:

Rewrite

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]

Full support for RewriteEngine, RewriteBase, RewriteCond, RewriteRule with all common flags.

Access Control

<RequireAll>
  Require ip 192.168.1.0/24
  Require not ip 192.168.1.100
</RequireAll>

# Legacy syntax also supported
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 192.168.1.0/24

Headers & MIME

Header set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
Header set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
AddType application/json .json
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 year"

PHP & Auth

php_value upload_max_filesize 64M
php_value post_max_size 64M
php_flag display_errors Off

AuthType Basic
AuthName "Restricted"
AuthUserFile /home/user/.htpasswd
Require valid-user

This means WordPress plugins like Yoast SEO, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, and virtually all security plugins work without any modifications.

Apache Migration Tools

LiteHttpd includes two tools for migrating from Apache:

readApacheConf

Analyzes an existing Apache configuration and generates a compatibility report:

litehttpd-readapacheconf /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Output includes:

• List of all directives found and their compatibility status
• Unsupported directives with suggested alternatives
• Virtual host mapping summary

litehttpd-confconv

Converts Apache configuration files to LiteHttpd native format:

litehttpd-confconv --input /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf --output /usr/local/lsws/conf/

Caution

Always review the converted configuration before applying it to production. Complex mod_security rules and custom Apache modules will need manual migration.

Security Features

LiteHttpd includes several security enhancements beyond stock OpenLiteSpeed:

• Anti-DDoS connection throttling — automatic per-IP rate limiting at the connection level
• Request body scanning — built-in request filtering for common attack patterns
• Strict HTTP parsing — rejects malformed requests before they reach the application
• chroot support — optional process isolation per virtual host
• Automatic security headers — default CSP, X-Frame-Options, and HSTS headers
• Hotlink protection — configurable referrer-based access control
• IP-level geo-blocking — block or allow by country code via MaxMind GeoIP2

Installation

LiteHttpd packages are available from the official RPM repository for EL9 and EL10:

# Add the repository
rpm -ivh https://rpms.litehttpd.com/litehttpd-release-latest.el9.noarch.rpm

# Install LiteHttpd
dnf install litehttpd

# Start the service
systemctl enable --now litehttpd

Tip

When you install LLStack panel via the install script, LiteHttpd is installed and configured automatically. Manual installation is only needed for standalone use.

Configuration Files

File	Purpose
/usr/local/lsws/conf/httpd_config.conf	Main server configuration
/usr/local/lsws/conf/vhosts/	Per-site virtual host configs
/home/<user>/<domain>/.htaccess	Per-directory overrides
/usr/local/lsws/logs/error.log	Server error log
/usr/local/lsws/logs/access.log	Access log