Now that we know how to attach most frameworks and applications to Lighttpd, it is time to have a look at a tiny, yet powerful scripting language, which can be used with FastCGI or directly integrated into Lighttpd.

Lua is one of the smallest scripting languages today (the whole distribution still fits on a floppy disk easily), and prides itself on being a meta-paradigm-language.

As of Lighttpd 1.3, a module for cache control added Lua as a programming language. This module was mod_cml (Cache Meta Language) and its purpose was restricted to control cache operation.

Since Lighttpd 1.4.7, this module has been superseded by mod_magnet, which allows Lua to manipulate the request and the reply with no startup cost. Instead it ties up the whole Lighttpd process while the script runs. Alternatively, there is a Lua/FastCGI application, by the author of Lighttpd, which reduces performance only a little, but runs outside the Lighttpd process.

If we have compiled our...