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<!DOCTYPE html>

<head>

<title>Mapfile Tuning & Management — MapServer 8.6.1 documentation</title>

</head><body>

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<h3>Navigation</h3>

<ul>

<a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index"

accesskey="I">index</a></li>

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accesskey="N">next</a> |</li>

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<li class="nav-item nav-item-2"><a href="index.html" accesskey="U">Optimization</a> »</li>

<li class="nav-item nav-item-this"><a href="">Mapfile Tuning & Management</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">Mapfile Tuning & Management</a><a class="headerlink" href="#mapfile-tuning-management" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h1>

<dt class="field-odd">Author:</dt>

<dd class="field-odd">David Fawcett

</dd>

<dt class="field-even">Contact:</dt>

<dd class="field-even">david.fawcett at gmail.com

</dd>

<dt class="field-odd">Author:</dt>

<dd class="field-odd">Jeff McKenna

</dd>

<dt class="field-even">Contact:</dt>

<dd class="field-even">jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com

</dd>

<dt class="field-odd">Last Updated:</dt>

<dd class="field-odd">2026-03-29

</dd>

</dl>

Table of Contents

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#mapfile-tuning-management" id="id1">Mapfile Tuning & Management</a>

<ul>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#introduction" id="id2">Introduction</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#steps-to-possibly-review" id="id3">Steps to Possibly Review</a>

<ul>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#use-a-mapserver-syntax-file-for-your-favorite-text-editor" id="id4">1. Use a MapServer Syntax file for your Favorite Text Editor</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#testing-your-mapfile-for-speed" id="id5">2. Testing your Mapfile for Speed</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#use-the-various-config-settings-for-debugging" id="id6">3. Use the various CONFIG settings for debugging</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#test-the-full-map-request-through-the-mapserv-executable" id="id7">4. Test the full Map Request through the mapserv Executable</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#projections" id="id8">5. Projections</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#use-includes" id="id9">6. Use INCLUDEs</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#layers" id="id10">7. Layers</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#yes-data-formats-matter" id="id11">8. Yes Data Formats Matter</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#enable-caching-through-mapcache" id="id12">9. Enable Caching through MapCache</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#symbols" id="id13">10. Symbols</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#fonts" id="id14">11. Fonts</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#use-mapscript" id="id15">12. Use MapScript</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#don-t-expose-your-map-path" id="id16">13. Don’t expose your MAP path</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

</nav>

<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">Introduction</a><a class="headerlink" href="#introduction" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>

The contents of a .map file (‘mapfile’) are used by MapServer for configuration, data

access, projection, and more. Because the mapfile is parsed every time a map

image is requested, it is important to think about what you include in the

file in order to optimize performance. The optimal mapfile is one that

doesn’t include or reference anything that isn’t needed. The following steps will

help you both manage and optimize your mapfiles.

Note

As you optimize your setup, it is strongly recommended to review the security steps

for the MAP= call to the MapServer executable, by setting MS_MAP_PATTERN or

MS_MAP_NO_PATH or hiding the MAP= parameter on public servers,

as recommended in the document <a class="reference internal" href="limit_mapfile_access.html#limit-mapfile-access">Limit Mapfile Access</a>. All possible

environment variables to secure your server are listed in <a class="reference internal" href="environment_variables.html#environment-variables">Environment Variables</a>.

</div>

</section>

<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">Steps to Possibly Review</a><a class="headerlink" href="#steps-to-possibly-review" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>

<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">1. Use a MapServer Syntax file for your Favorite Text Editor</a><a class="headerlink" href="#use-a-mapserver-syntax-file-for-your-favorite-text-editor" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>

Although it’s maybe not be classed as an ‘optimization’, using a syntax

file to add color-coding to MapServer mapfile parameters in your text editor,

can help save you time and make your MapServer-mapfile-management-life

much easier. You can find a helpful list of these syntax color-coding tools for

MapServer listed on the page at <a class="reference internal" href="../development/editing/index.html#editing">Mapfile Editing</a>.

</section>

<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">2. Testing your Mapfile for Speed</a><a class="headerlink" href="#testing-your-mapfile-for-speed" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>

If optimization and performance are important to you, then get to know and love

the MapServer commandline utility <a class="reference internal" href="../utilities/map2img.html#map2img">map2img</a>. map2img will verify that your

mapfile creates a valid map image, but it can also display draw times (length of

time it takes MapServer to process each layer and the final map image) with the

-map_debug 3 setting:

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>map2img -m osm.map -o ttt.png -map_debug 3

msDrawMap(): rendering using outputformat named png (AGG/PNG).

msDrawMap(): WMS/WFS set-up and query, 0.000s

msDrawMap(): Layer 95 (land13), 0.001s

msDrawMap(): Layer 96 (landuse13), 0.051s

msDrawMap(): Layer 97 (transport_areas13), 0.002s

msDrawMap(): Layer 98 (waterarea13), 0.003s

msDrawMap(): Layer 99 (waterways13), 0.002s

msDrawMap(): Layer 100 (railways13), 0.003s

msDrawMap(): Layer 101 (roads13), 0.024s

msDrawMap(): Layer 102 (aeroways13), 0.002s

msDrawMap(): Layer 103 (buildings13), 0.245s

msDrawMap(): Layer 104 (borders13), 0.197s

msDrawMap(): Layer 105 (places13), 0.078s

msDrawLabelCache(): labelcache_map_edge_buffer = 10

msDrawMap(): Drawing Label Cache, 0.020s

msDrawMap() total time: 0.772s

msSaveImage(ttt.png) total time: 0.056s

</pre></div>

</div>

The above example generates a map image in 0.772 seconds.

Hint: If you want maximum (verbose) messages, try the -all_debug 5 setting

instead.

You can also just get draw times for a single layer with the -l layername switch,

such as:

msDrawLabelCache(): labelcache_map_edge_buffer = 10

msDrawMap() total time: 0.120s

</pre></div>

</div>

Note

<a class="reference internal" href="../utilities/map2img.html#map2img">map2img</a> should be included in your

MapServer installation (<a class="reference external" href="https://ms4w.com">MS4W</a> users

need to execute setenv.bat before using the utility).

</div>

</section>

<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">3. Use the various CONFIG settings for debugging</a><a class="headerlink" href="#use-the-various-config-settings-for-debugging" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>

Review the <a class="reference internal" href="debugging.html#debugging">Debugging MapServer</a> document and try setting the CONFIG parameter

at the MAP-level in your mapfile, to hopefully get more information

from various sources such as from the PROJ library, GDAL library, etc.

<div class="highlight-mapfile notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>MAP

...

CONFIG "CPL_DEBUG" "ON"

CONFIG "PROJ_DEBUG" "ON"

...

LAYER

...

END

</pre></div>

</div>

Note

You can set “CPL_DEBUG” “PROJ” to restrict the information returned to PROJ

(and not GDAL in general)

</div>

</section>

<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">4. Test the full Map Request through the mapserv Executable</a><a class="headerlink" href="#test-the-full-map-request-through-the-mapserv-executable" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>

There are times when your mapfile generates a valid map image with a local

map2img command, but then the same mapfile will cause an error in a map

request through the web server, such as Apache. It is these times when

you should try the same request, that was sent through your web server, at

the commandline with the actual mapserv (or on Windows, the mapserv.exe)

utility.

The following request will take a full MAP=…&MODE=map request, and try to save

the request to an image, or report an error:

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>mapserv -nh "QUERY_STRING=MAP=/ms4w/apps/local-demo/local.map&MODE=map" > test.png

</pre></div>

</div>

You can use this to also test problematic WMS GetMap requests as well:

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>mapserv -nh "QUERY_STRING=SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.3.0&REQUEST=GetMap&BBOX=41.42710000000000292,-173.4329999999999927,83.74660000000000082,-13.04809999999999981&CRS=EPSG:4326&WIDTH=369&HEIGHT=98&LAYERS=park&STYLES=&FORMAT=image/png&DPI=96&MAP_RESOLUTION=96&FORMAT_OPTIONS=dpi:96&TRANSPARENT=TRUE" > test.png

</pre></div>

</div>

Note: Besides checking your web server logs, you can also use QGIS to get the exact

request to your OWS (WMS/WFS etc.) service: see <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/MapServer/MapServer/wiki/Get-the-Raw-WMS-Request-Generated-by-QGIS">https://github.com/MapServer/MapServer/wiki/Get-the-Raw-WMS-Request-Generated-by-QGIS</a>

</section>

<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">5. Projections</a><a class="headerlink" href="#projections" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>

There are two ways to define projections in a mapfile. You can either use

inline projection parameters or specify an EPSG code for that projection. If

you use the <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-EPSG">EPSG</a> code method, <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-PROJ">PROJ</a> looks up the projection

parameters in the PROJ database using the EPSG code as an ID. This database

lookup takes significantly more resources than when the projection parameters

are defined inline. This lookup takes place for each projection definition

using EPSG codes in a mapfile.

See also

<a class="reference internal" href="../mapfile/projection.html#projection">PROJECTION</a>

</div>

Projection defined using inline projection parameters

<div class="highlight-mapfile notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>PROJECTION

"proj=utm"

"ellps=GRS80"

"datum=NAD83"

"zone=15"

"units=m"

"north"

"no_defs"

END

</pre></div>

</div>

Projection defined using EPSG Code

<div class="highlight-mapfile notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>PROJECTION

"init=epsg:26915"

END

</pre></div>

</div>

Optimization Suggestions

<ul>

<li>Use inline projection parameter definitions in place of EPSG codes.</li>

<li>It should be stated that for optimal performance you could have MapServer

not do any projections on-demand (in other words, have all of your source

data in the same projection, and have MapServer output requests in that

same projection) but obviously this is not always possible for all scenarios.</li>

<li>If you want to use EPSG codes, remove all unneeded projection definition

records from the PROJ <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-EPSG">EPSG</a> database.

Note

This was a common trick for PROJ versions <6 (and its epsg file),

but for PROJ >= 6 a proj.db SQLite database is used to store

these EPSG lookup codes, and optimizations for that will take some

time to be developed and shared).

</div>

</li>

</ul>

</section>

<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">6. Use INCLUDEs</a><a class="headerlink" href="#use-includes" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>

Implemented back in MapServer 4.10, the mapfile <a class="reference internal" href="../mapfile/include.html#include">INCLUDE</a> parameter is

possibly one of the best ways to help manage your large mapfiles (you might

argue that this is not ‘optimization’ for speed again, but for it is very

important for managing large mapfiles with many layers).

Any part of the mapfile can be referenced through an INCLUDE, besides the

obvious layers.

Note

Common file extensions for includes are: .lyr, .include, or even .map

. You can name them any file extension that you wish.

</div>

You could have something like:

<div class="highlight-mapfile notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>MAP

...

WEB

INCLUDE "metadata.include"

END

...

INCLUDE "elevation.lyr"

INCLUDE "country.lyr"

INCLUDE "city.lyr"

...

END

</pre></div>

</div>

Where metadata.include could contain:

<div class="highlight-mapfile notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>METADATA

"wms_title" "WMS Demo Server" ##required

"wms_onlineresource" "http://yourpath/cgi-bin/mapserv.exe?" ##required

"wms_srs" "EPSG:3857 EPSG:4326 EPSG:4269 EPSG:3978" ##recommended

"wms_enable_request" "*" ##necessary

END

</pre></div>

</div>

</section>

<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">7. Layers</a><a class="headerlink" href="#layers" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>

For every layer in a mapfile that has a status of ON or DEFAULT, MapServer

will load that layer and prepare it for display, even if that layer never gets

displayed.

Optimization Suggestions

<li>Build lean mapfiles, only include layers that you plan to use.</li>

<li>Turn off unnecessary layers; the more layers MapServer is displaying, the

more time it takes. Have your opening map view show only the minimum

necessary to orient the user, and allow them to turn on additional layers as

needed. This is particularly true of remote WMS or very large rasters.</li>

<li>Related to turning off layers, is turning them on but using MINSCALEDENOM

and MAXSCALEDENOM to determine at what zoomlevels the layer is available. If

a map’s display is outside of the layer’s MINSCALEDENOM and MAXSCALEDENOM

range, then MapServer can skip processing that layer. It also makes for a

really cool effect, that the national boundaries magically change to state

boundaries.</li>

<li>If you have a complex application, consider using multiple simple and

specific mapfiles in place of one large ‘do everything’ mapfile.</li>

<li>In a similar vein, each class also supports MINSCALEDENOM and MAXSCALEDENOM.

If your dataset has data that are relevant at different zoomlevels, then you

may find this a very handy trick. For example, give a MINSCALEDENOM of

1:1000000, county roads a MINSCALEDENOM of 1:100000, and streets a

MAXSCALEDENOM of 1:50000. You get the cool effect of new data magically

appearing, but you don’t have MapServer trying to draw the nation’s roads

when the entire nation is in view!</li>

<li>Classes are processed in order, and a feature is assigned to the first class

that matches. So try placing the most commonly-used classes at the top of

the class list, so MapServer doesn’t have to try as many classes before

finding a match. For example, if you wanted to highlight the single state of

Wyoming, you would probably do this:</li>

</ul>

<div class="highlight-mapfile notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>CLASS

EXPRESSION ('[NAME]' eq 'WY'])

STYLE

COLOR 255 0 0

END

CLASS

STYLE

COLOR 128 128 128

END

</pre></div>

</div>

But it would be a lot more efficient to do this, since 98% of cases will be

matched on the first try:

<div class="highlight-mapfile notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre>CLASS

EXPRESSION ('[NAME]' ne 'WY'])

STYLE

COLOR 128 128 128

END

CLASS

STYLE

COLOR 255 0 0

END

</pre></div>

</div>

<li>Use <a class="reference internal" href="tileindex.html#tileindex">tile indexes</a> instead of multiple layers.</li>

</ul>

</section>

<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">8. Yes Data Formats Matter</a><a class="headerlink" href="#yes-data-formats-matter" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>

This is often not written in documents, yet is often taught in hands-on

workshops (as maybe readers or developers can be reading the document here

and become offended if it differs in their thinking or the purpose of

their software design, as some formats may be deemed ‘uncool’ by some crowds,

but in reality, we don’t care about coolness here, we care about making MapServer

fast). So the following advice is by the authors of this

document (disclaimer), and may offend some readers, therefore ‘viewer discretion

is advised’.

Although MapServer can read any GDAL supported <a class="reference external" href="https://gdal.org/drivers/vector/index.html">vector</a>

or <a class="reference external" href="https://gdal.org/drivers/raster/index.html">raster</a> source (and the

fact that not all users will be setting up tile caching beforehand), the following

is still recommended for MapServer for optimal performance in terms of data formats.

Optimization Suggestions

<li>The best/optimal data sources for MapServer in terms of speed-of-display

is <a class="reference external" href="https://gdal.org/drivers/vector/shapefile.html#vector-shapefile">.shp</a>

(for vectors) and <a class="reference external" href="https://gdal.org/drivers/raster/gtiff.html">GeoTIFF</a>

(for rasters).</li>

<li>For databases, MapServer displays <a class="reference external" href="https://gdal.org/drivers/vector/pg.html">PostGIS</a>

layers very fast, and some custom tricks are included in the MapServer source

specifically for PostGIS + MapServer draw speed. PostGIS is therefore recommended.</li>

<li><a class="reference external" href="https://gdal.org/drivers/vector/sqlite.html">SpatiaLite</a> is recommended

for those who require a portable format, and works very well with MapServer.</li>

<li>For whatever formats you choose, definitely review the associated GDAL format

(driver) page for that specific format, and enable indexing (spatial or also attribute

indexing).</li>

<li>Rasters, and of course GeoTIFFs, should also have overviews included, through the

<a class="reference external" href="https://gdal.org/programs/gdaladdo.html">gdaladdo</a> utility.</li>

<li>Raster layers can also include various <a class="reference internal" href="../input/raster.html#raster-processing-directives">PROCESSING directives</a>,

specific to raster display in MapServer (such as displaying specific bands, or choosing a

resampling method, but for resampling do experiment with the fastest display option

versus display quality).</li>

<li>If you do use .shp files (and many still do) you must always enable fast quadtree

index lookups in MapServer through the <a class="reference internal" href="../utilities/shptree.html#shptree">shptree</a> utility.</li>

<li>Wherever possible, making your source dataset as lightweight as possible, will

assist MapServer in processing your data (for vectors, this could mean removing

unused data fields).</li>

<li>As mentioned earlier, if you must display various rasters or vectors as a ‘mosaic’

together, implement <a class="reference internal" href="tileindex.html#tileindex">Tile Indexes</a>, to implement the mosaic as a single layer

in MapServer.</li>

<li>GDAL’s virtual format (VRT) is very

powerful also for mosaicing or transforming data on-demand, and has specific VRT

driver instructions for <a class="reference external" href="https://gdal.org/drivers/vector/vrt.html">vector</a>

and <a class="reference external" href="https://gdal.org/drivers/raster/vrt.html#raster-vrt">raster</a> .</li>

<li>There are times when splitting .shp files (shapefiles) into smaller files, make it

more efficient to display in MapServer; the <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/woodbri/imaptools.com">shp2tile</a>

utility is a wonderful commandline tool for this.</li>

</ul>

Note

For Windows users, <a class="reference external" href="https://ms4w.com">MS4W</a> includes the shp2tile utility, and

all utilities mentioned above.

</div>

</section>

<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">9. Enable Caching through MapCache</a><a class="headerlink" href="#enable-caching-through-mapcache" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>

If your mapfile serves any OGC-related service (such as WMS, WFS, etc.) you should

consider enabling <a class="reference internal" href="../mapcache/index.html#mapcache">MapCache</a>, an Apache module, for your services. Caching

common map results (as an image file, or inside a SQLite db for example) for common

map extents, will obviously drastically improve speed, and cancel-out any format

discussions/benefits/arguments mentioned above.

</section>

<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">10. Symbols</a><a class="headerlink" href="#symbols" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>

When the mapfile is loaded, each raster symbol listed in the symbols file is

located on the filesystem and loaded.

Optimization Suggestions

<li>Only include raster symbols in your symbols file if you know that they will

be used by your application.</li>

</ul>

</section>

<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">11. Fonts</a><a class="headerlink" href="#fonts" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>

To load a font, MapServer opens up a lookup file (often named fonts.list or fonts.txt)

<a class="reference internal" href="../mapfile/fontset.html#fontset">FONTSET</a> which contains an alias for the font and the path for that font file. If you have a

fonts.list file with a long list of fonts, it will take more time for

MapServer to locate and load the font that you need.

Optimization Suggestions

<li>Limit the entries in fonts.list to fonts that you actually use.</li>

</ul>

</section>

<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">12. Use MapScript</a><a class="headerlink" href="#use-mapscript" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>

MapScript, in your favorite language such as PHP or Python, can be used to manipulate

mapfiles on-the-fly. Some common use cases are:

<li>adding a layer into an existing mapfile</li>

<li>modifying an existing layer</li>

<li>generating a new mapfile/service on-demand</li>

</ul>

The options here are limitless, for what you can do with MapScript. The full list

of available parameters and functions (methods) are listed in the <a class="reference internal" href="../mapscript/mapscript-api/index.html#swig">SWIG MapScript API Reference</a>.

</section>

<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#table-of-contents" role="doc-backlink">13. Don’t expose your MAP path</a><a class="headerlink" href="#don-t-expose-your-map-path" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h3>

This is more obvious if your mapfile serves OGC services, such as set in the

wms_onlineresource metadata parameter in your WEB object, which by default

must contain the MAP=path/to/your/mapfile, but exposing paths on your public

server can open you to possible malicious attacks on your filesystem. You should

take some time to review the possible steps in the document <a class="reference internal" href="limit_mapfile_access.html#limit-mapfile-access">Limit Mapfile Access</a>.

At the minimum, you should enable the MS_MAPFILE <a class="reference internal" href="environment_variables.html#environment-variables">environment variable</a>

so that your CGI mapserv requests, and your onlineresource OGC requests, do not require

a visible MAP= path. The WMS Server document has several <a class="reference internal" href="../ogc/wms_server.html#online-resource-wms">examples</a>

of how to enable these environment variables.

</section>

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<h3>Current Table Of Contents</h3>

<ul>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">Mapfile Tuning & Management</a><ul>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#introduction">Introduction</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#steps-to-possibly-review">Steps to Possibly Review</a><ul>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#use-a-mapserver-syntax-file-for-your-favorite-text-editor">1. Use a MapServer Syntax file for your Favorite Text Editor</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#testing-your-mapfile-for-speed">2. Testing your Mapfile for Speed</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#use-the-various-config-settings-for-debugging">3. Use the various CONFIG settings for debugging</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#test-the-full-map-request-through-the-mapserv-executable">4. Test the full Map Request through the mapserv Executable</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#projections">5. Projections</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#use-includes">6. Use INCLUDEs</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#layers">7. Layers</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#yes-data-formats-matter">8. Yes Data Formats Matter</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#enable-caching-through-mapcache">9. Enable Caching through MapCache</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#symbols">10. Symbols</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#fonts">11. Fonts</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#use-mapscript">12. Use MapScript</a></li>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#don-t-expose-your-map-path">13. Don’t expose your MAP path</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

</div>

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