nginx+php-fpm question

Hi, [Note: I am new to this list and I don't actively work on php internals. I have been occasionally glancing at some php internals here n there for interest and better understanding.] I raised this question on php-general and was recommended to try out the internals list: (tried to search the archives but couldn't do so) http://news.php.net/php.general/308097 My specific doubts are: 1) In the fast-cgi setup with php-fpm, it seems the app developer is responsible for resource mgmt? Currently we use apache+mod_php (apache 2.2, php 5.2.x series on linux 2.6), and we rely on mod_php cleaning up various resources (non-persistent socket connections to memcached, mysqld, and other services via curl). So my guess is, if we do php-fpm approach, we have to do all these cleanups manually? Or are there simpler solutions or hook-ups that does it automatically at the end of the request cycle? 2) My other concern is the extra ipc overhead between nginx<---->php-fpm servers even on unix sockets. To me in theory apache+mod_php ( + apc with stat off) should be as efficient as you can get. Granted nginx might be more efficient in its socket mgmt (non-blocking event-driven i/o), but can it really outperform the apache approach given the issues in (1) are resolved? I hope to run some tests myself with our typical (and non-trivial) php app, but any insights you already have would be beneficial. thx, Ravi