HTTP request filters are applied when Apache serves an HTTP request.

HTTP request input filters get invoked on the body of the HTTP request only if the body is consumed by the content handler. HTTP request headers are not passed through the HTTP request input filters.

HTTP response output filters get invoked on the body of the HTTP response, if the content handler has generated one. HTTP response headers are not passed through the HTTP response output filters.

Connection-level filters are applied at the connection level.

A connection may be configured to serve one or more HTTP requests, or handle other protocols. Connection filters see all the incoming and outgoing data. If an HTTP request is served, connection filters can modify the HTTP headers and the body of the request and response. Of course, if a different protocol is served over the connection (e.g., IMAP), the data could have a completely different pattern than the HTTP protocol (headers and body).

Apache supports several other filter types that mod_perl 2.0 may support in the future.