Nginx HTTP Server + PHP5 (With fast-cgi And xcache) On Ubuntu Feisty Fawn

This HowTo describes the implementation of Nginx with php5 support (through FastCGI). The fast-cgi process will be initiated via spawn-fcgi.

What for? Nginx is a great replacement of Apache with very low memory footprint and contrary to Lighttpd, doesn't suffer from memory leak over time. You can then use all the memory left to unleash the power of mysql for instance by increasing the default query cache.

We have first to install php5 and, because we will need it later, build-essential.

 apt-get install php5-cli php5-cgi php5-xcache build-essential

Note that xcache has to be implemented manually by adding the following lines in the php.ini located in /etc/php5/cgi/ (please tune this config according to your system)

[xcache-common]
extension = xcache.so
[xcache.admin]
xcache.admin.user = "mOo"
; xcache.admin.pass = md5($your_password)
xcache.admin.pass = ""
[xcache]
; ini only settings, all the values here is default unless explained
; select low level shm/allocator scheme implemenation
xcache.shm_scheme =        "mmap"
; to disable: xcache.size=0
; to enable : xcache.size=64M etc (any size > 0) and your system mmap allows
xcache.size  =                64M
; set to cpu count (cat /proc/cpuinfo |grep -c processor)
xcache.count =                 1
; just a hash hints, you can always store count(items) > slots
xcache.slots =                8K
; ttl of the cache item, 0=forever
xcache.ttl   =                 0
; interval of gc scanning expired items, 0=no scan, other values is in seconds
xcache.gc_interval =           0
; same as aboves but for variable cache
xcache.var_size  =            64M
xcache.var_count =             1
xcache.var_slots =            8K
; default ttl
xcache.var_ttl   =             0
xcache.var_maxttl   =          0
xcache.var_gc_interval =     300
xcache.test =                Off
; N/A for /dev/zero
xcache.readonly_protection = Off
; for *nix, xcache.mmap_path is a file path, not directory.
; Use something like "/tmp/xcache" if you want to turn on ReadonlyProtection
; 2 group of php won't share the same /tmp/xcache
; for win32, xcache.mmap_path=anonymous map name, not file path
xcache.mmap_path =    "/dev/zero"

; leave it blank(disabled) or "/tmp/phpcore/"
; make sure it's writable by php (without checking open_basedir)
xcache.coredump_directory =   ""
; per request settings
xcache.cacher =               On
xcache.stat   =               On
xcache.optimizer =            On
[xcache.coverager]
; per request settings
; enable coverage data collecting for xcache.coveragedump_directory and xcache_coverager_start/stop/get/clean() functions (will hurt executing performance)
xcache.coverager =          Off
; ini only settings
; make sure it's readable (care open_basedir) by coverage viewer script
; requires xcache.coverager=On
xcache.coveragedump_directory = ""

You can do that right now even if your php configuration isn't loaded yet so everything will be in good order when Nginx and fcgi process will be started.

Next: we get the latest stable version of Nginx. The one proposed by Feisty is prehistoric one. Fortunately, there's a place you can get the latest stable version, or if you are adventurous, the latest dev version. So here we go:

 wget http://technokracy.net/nginx/nginx_0.5.32~grrr-1_i386.deb

(Note that if you are running on AMD replace i386 by amd64.)

Then:

 sudo dpkg -i nginx_0.5.32~grrr-1_i386.deb

Nginx is now up and running on default port 8000 (just in case you already have Apache or anything else on port 80).

The default root folder is Nginx-default and is located in /var/www/.

To change that and to start to listen to the fast-cgi we will launch next, you have to open /etc/nginx/sites-available/default.

 vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

You can find there all the obvious options to change and add (or uncomment the original php paragraph):

        location ~ \.php$ {
        include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass  127.0.0.1:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  /var/www/nginx-default$fastcgi_script_name;
    }

We've just asked Nginx to listen to fcgi on port 9000. So we have to start now the fcgi process. I've chosen to use spawn-fcgi and to make my own init script of it (so the process will start after reboot). To have spawn-fcgi you have to get lighttpd configured but without the need to install it. Let's grab the latest version:

 wget http://www.lighttpd.net/download/lighttpd-1.4.18.tar.bz2

 tar -xvjf lighttpd-1.4.18.tar.bz2

cd lighttpd-1.4.18

 ./configure

 make

 cp src/spawn-fcgi /usr/bin/spawn-fcgi

Note that we did not type make install so lighttpd is not running!

Then we create a shell script we can call php-fastcgi or whatever you want and place that file in /usr/bin/ to make it simple (as php5-cgi and spawn-fcgi are already there...).

 touch /usr/bin/php-fastcgi

Then edit it:

 vi /usr/bin/php-fastcgi

and add the following:

#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/spawn-fcgi -a 127.0.0.1 -p 9000 -u www-data -f /usr/bin/php5-cgi

That means every time this script will be called, fcgi will be spawned on port 9000 for user www-data (default user).

To make it work at startup we need now to create an init script:

 touch /etc/init.d/init-fastcgi

Edit and add:

 vi /etc/init.d/init-fastcgi

#!/bin/bash
PHP_SCRIPT=/usr/bin/php-fastcgi
RETVAL=0
case "$1" in
    start)
      $PHP_SCRIPT
      RETVAL=$?
  ;;
    stop)
      killall -9 php
      RETVAL=$?
  ;;
    restart)
      killall -9 php
      $PHP_SCRIPT
      RETVAL=$?
  ;;
    *)
      echo "Usage: php-fastcgi {start|stop|restart}"
      exit 1
  ;;
esac      
exit $RETVAL

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