Till's blog

Start script

The setup is simple, just put the following into a php-fcgid file in /etc/init.d/, chmod +x it and don't forget it to use update-rc.d php-fcgid defaults in case you want to start the processes when the server boots up:

#!/bin/sh
#
# Author: Till Klampaeckel <[email protected]>
#
# Credits
#
#  * original script: http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/FreeBSD/questions/2007-09/msg00468.html
#  * improved: http://till.klampaeckel.de/blog/archives/30-PHP-performance-III-Running-nginx.html
#  * all linux start script fu inspired by CouchDB's start script (by Noah Slater)
#

SCRIPT_OK=0
SCRIPT_ERROR=1

DESCRIPTION="php-fcgi super-duper-control thing"
NAME=php-fgcid
SCRIPT_NAME=$(basename $0)

WWW_GROUP=www-data
PHP_CGI=/usr/bin/php-cgi

phpfcgid_users="johndoe jandoe"
phpfcgid_children="2"
phpfcgid_tmpdir="/tmp"
phpfcgid_requests="100"

log_daemon_msg () {
    echo [email protected]
}

log_end_msg () {
    # Dummy function to be replaced by LSB library.

    if test "$1" != "0"; then
        echo "Error with $DESCRIPTION: $NAME"
    fi
    return $1
}

phpfcgid_start() {
    echo "Starting $NAME with $phpfcgid_children children (req: $phpfcgid_requests)."

    export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=$phpfcgid_children
    export PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=$phpfcgid_requests

    for user in ${phpfcgid_users}; do
        socketdir="${phpfcgid_tmpdir}/.fastcgi.${user}"
        mkdir -p ${socketdir}
        chown ${user}:${WWW_GROUP} ${socketdir}
        chmod 0750 ${socketdir}
        su -m ${user} -c "${PHP_CGI} -b ${socketdir}/socket&"
    done
}

phpfcgid_stop() {
    echo "Stopping $NAME."
    pids=`pgrep php-cgi`
    pkill php-cgi
}

phpfcgid_status() {
    log_daemon_msg "To be implemented: status"
    log_end_msg $SCRIPT_ERROR
}


parse_script_option_list () {

    case "$1" in
        start)
            log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESCRIPTION" $NAME
            if phpfcgid_start; then
                log_end_msg $SCRIPT_OK
            else
                log_end_msg $SCRIPT_ERROR
            fi
            ;;
        stop)
            log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESCRIPTION" $NAME
            if phpfcgid_stop; then
                log_end_msg $SCRIPT_OK
            else
                log_end_msg $SCRIPT_ERROR
            fi
            ;;
        restart|force-reload)
            log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESCRIPTION" $NAME
            if phpfcgid_stop; then
                if phpfcgid_start; then
                    log_end_msg $SCRIPT_OK
                else
                    log_end_msg $SCRIPT_ERROR
                fi
            else
                log_end_msg $SCRIPT_ERROR
            fi
            ;;
        status)
            phpfcgid_status
            ;;
        *)
            cat << EOF >&2
Usage: $SCRIPT_NAME {start|stop|restart|force-reload|status}
EOF
            exit $SCRIPT_ERROR
            ;;
    esac
}

parse_script_option_list [email protected]

General PHP Installation

The required steps in order to get the php installation:

• apt-get update
• apt-get install php5-cgi
• apt-get install nginx

(These steps are working on Ubuntu Jaunty (aka 9.04), but they should work on virtually any other Ubuntu or Debian installation.)

Nginx configuration

This is a simple virtualhost for nginx:

server {
    listen   80;
    server_name  example.org;

    access_log  /var/log/nginx/example.org-access.log;
    error_log off;

    location / {
        root   /var/www/example.org/htdocs;
        index  index.php index.html index.htm;
    }

    location ~ .php {
        include fastcgi_params;

        fastcgi_pass  unix:/tmp/.fastcgi.johndoe/socket;
        fastcgi_index index.php;

        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /var/www/example.org/htdocs/$fastcgi_script_name;
    }
}

Place the above into /etc/nginx/sites-available and symlink it from /etc/nginx/sites-enabled.

One thing to note is that you may have to adjust the line with fastcgi_pass. Depending on which user the socket belongs to.

Conclusion

There really isn't one. ;-) It just works for me, and I hope it helps someone out there.

I also created a repository on github where I'll keep this script, manage changes and open source my other findings on my journey with Ubuntu.

If you happen to have an addition, please fork and contribute. One of the things for the start script that I'd like to do (aka I have to figure them out) is install it through a package and create a configuration file in /etc/defaults so I don't have to edit the start script when I add a user or change the parameters passed on to the php-cgi process.