WordPress object cache is a common way to speed up your site. PHP-APCu on Ubuntu 16.04 can help achieve your goal of supreme WordPress or WooCommerce speed.
This guide will show you how to install APCu Object Cache for PHP7 for WordPress on Ubuntu 16.04. There are three installation methods outlined here to best suit your needs. Usually installing from the repository or using PEAR is recommended, for bleeding edge users installing APCu from source it shown as well.
Install APCu Object Cache for PHP7 on WordPress on Ubuntu 16.04
Here are 3 ways to install the APCu object cache for WordPress or WooCommerce.
You should only choose one installation method.
- Install APCu object cache for WordPress with one of the following methods
- Then install the APCu WordPress object cache plugin
Install APCu Object Cache via Repository
Using this method you will not always get the latest version, it is however the easiest method.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install php7.0-apcu -y
Restart your php7.0-fpm service if you are using nginx
sudo service php7.0-fpm restart
Reload Apache if you are using it.
sudo service apache2 reload
Install APCu Using php PEAR
Another way to install is using php-pear, install it first
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install php-pear -y
Running this command will install APCu.
sudo pecl install apcu
Add the extension to a custom ini file.
echo "extension = apcu.so" | sudo tee -a /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/apcu.ini
Since I use php7.0-fpm with nginx I am symlinking into the php7.0 fpm and cli folders.
sudo ln -s /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/apcu.ini /etc/php/7.0/fpm/conf.d/30-apcu.ini
sudo ln -s /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/apcu.ini /etc/php/7.0/cli/conf.d/30-apcu.ini
Restart php7-fpm
sudo php7.0-fpm restart
Apache2 users will want to symlink this file
sudo ln -s /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/apcu.ini /etc/php/7.0/apache2/conf.d/30-apcu.ini
Apache users reload the Apache service
sudo service apache2 reload
Install APCu from Source Manually
The last way to install php7-apcu is to build from source. This way you get the bleeding edge version.
We need to install the php 7 development package and git first.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install php7.0-dev git build-essential -y
Enter your /tmp folder and clone the latest APCu source code from the git repository.
cd /tmp
git clone https://github.com/krakjoe/apcu
Now build the php7.0-apcu extension and install it.
cd apcu
phpize
./configure
make
sudo make install
Add the extension to the apcu.ini
file
echo "extension = apcu.so" | sudo tee -a /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/apcu.ini
Since I use php7.0-fpm with nginx I am symlinking into the php-7.0 fpm and cli folders.
sudo ln -s /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/apcu.ini /etc/php/7.0/fpm/conf.d/30-apcu.ini
sudo ln -s /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/apcu.ini /etc/php/7.0/cli/conf.d/30-apcu.ini
Restart php7.0-fpm service
sudo php7.0-fpm restart
Apache2 users will want to symlink this file
sudo ln -s /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/apcu.ini /etc/php/7.0/apache2/conf.d/30-apcu.ini
Reload the Apache service
sudo service apache2 reload
Install the APCu object cache plugin
We are going to install the LCache Plugin hosted on github sponsored by Pantheon.
If you do not have WP-CLI or shell access to your host then you have to create the object-cache.php file manually with these instructions.
cd /var/www/guides.wp-bullet.com
sudo -u www-data wp plugin install wp-lcache --activate && wp lcache enable
You will see this output
Success: Enabled WP LCache by creating wp-content/object-cache.php stub file.
Now you can optionally adjust the RAM for APCu and monitor the APCu cache
Adjust PHP-APCu RAM
Open the apcu.ini
configuration file
sudo nano /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/apcu.ini
Add the apc.shm_size
line after the extension
line. Here the APCu allocated ram is being changed to 50 MB.
extension=apcu.so
apc.shm_size = "50M"
Ctrl+X, Y and Enter to Save
Restart php7.0-fpm if you are using nginx or Apache with FPM.
sudo service php7.0-fpm restart
Reload Apache if that is your web server of choice
sudo service apache2 reload
Monitoring APCu Cache
Download the apc.php script
cd /var/www/guides.wp-bullet.com
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/krakjoe/apcu/master/apc.php
Now you can open yourdomain.com/apc.php and see the amount of cached objects, hit and miss rate.
Sources
Using PHP7 with APCu and W3 Total Cache
Krakjoe APCu Monitoring
Control Panel for APCu