Nginx and php-fastcgi on Debian 6 (Squeeze)

Nginx and php-fastcgi on Debian 6 (Squeeze)

Published:monday, May 9th, by Phil Paradis

The Nginx Web server is a fast, lightweight server designed to efficiently handle the needs of both low and high traffic W Ebsites. Although commonly used to serve static content, it's quite capable of handling dynamic pages as well. This guide would help you get the nginx up and running with PHP via FastCGI on your Debian 6 (Squeeze) Linux VPS.

It is assumed so you ' ve already followed the steps outlined in our Getting Started guide. These steps should is performed via a root login to your Linode VPS over SSH.

Contents

Set the Hostname Install Required Packages Configure Virtual hostingtest PHP with FastCGI Create directories UNIX Sockets Configuration Example TCP Sockets configuration Example Important Security considerations Enable and Start Services more I nformation

Set the Hostname

Before you to begin installing and configuring the components described in this guide, please make sure your ' ve followed our I Nstructions for setting your hostname. Issue the following commands to make sure it is set properly:

Hostname

The first command should show your short hostname, and the second should show your fully qualified domain name (FQDN).

Install Required Packages

Issue the following commands to update your system and install the Nginx Web server, PHP, and compiler tools:

Apt-get Update

Apt-get Upgrade

Configure Virtual Hosting

Create Directories

The This guide, the domain "example.com" are used as an example site. You should substitute your own domain name in the configuration steps that follow. First, create directories to hold content and log files:

Mkdir-p/srv/www/www.example.com/public_html

Mkdir/srv/www/www.example.com/logs

UNIX Sockets Configuration Example

Next, you'll need to define the site ' s virtual host file. This example uses a UNIX socket to connect to Fcgiwrap. Be sure to change all instances of "example.com" to your domain name.

File:/etc/nginx/sites-available/www.example.com

server {

Error_log/srv/www/www.example.com/logs/error.log;

root/srv/www/www.example.com/public_html;

Location/{

Index index.htmlindex.htm;

}

Location ~ \.php$ {

Include/etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;

Fastcgi_passunix:/var/run/php-fastcgi/php-fastcgi.socket;

Fastcgi_index index.php;

Fastcgi_param Script_filename/srv/www/www.example.com/public_html$fastcgi_script_name;

}

Create a file named/usr/bin/php-fastcgi with the following contents:

file:/usr/bin/php-fastcgi

#!/bin/bash

Fastcgi_user=www-data

Fastcgi_group=www-data

Socket=/var/run/php-fastcgi/php-fastcgi.socket

Pidfile=/var/run/php-fastcgi/php-fastcgi.pid

Children=6 php5=/usr/bin/php5-cgi

/usr/bin/spawn-fcgi-s $SOCKET-P $PIDFILE-C $CHILDREN-u $FASTCGI _user-g $FASTCGI _group-f $PHP 5

Make it executable by issuing the following command:

TCP Sockets Configuration Example

Alternately, wish to use TCP sockets instead. If So, modify your Nginx virtual host configuration file to resemble the following example. Again, make sure to replace all instances of ' example.com ' with your domain name.

File:/etc/nginx/sites-available/www.example.com

server {

Access_log/srv/www/www.example.com/logs/access.log;

Error_log/srv/www/www.example.com/logs/error.log;

root/srv/www/www.example.com/public_html;

Location/{

Index  index.html index.htm;

}

Location ~ \.php$ {

Include/etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;

Fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;

Fastcgi_index index.php;

Fastcgi_param Script_filename/srv/www/www.example.com/public_html$fastcgi_script_name;

}

Create a file named/usr/bin/php-fastcgi with the following contents:

file:/usr/bin/php-fastcgi

php5=/usr/bin/php5-cgi  

Make it executable by issuing the following command:

Important Security Considerations

If you ' re planning to run applications. Support file uploads (images, for example), the above configurations may expos E-a security risk by allowing arbitrary code execution. The short explanation-behavior is a properly crafted URI which ends in ". php", in combination with a Malicio US image file that actually contains valid PHP, can result in the image being processed as PHP.

To mitigate this issue, the wish to modify your configuration to include a try_files directive. Please note, this fix requires nginx and the php-fcgi workers to reside on the same server.

Location ~ \.php$ {

Try_files $uri = 404;

Include/etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;

Fastcgi_pass Unix:/var/run/php-fastcgi/php-fastcgi.socket;

Fastcgi_index index.php;

Fastcgi_param Script_filename/srv/www/www.example.com/public_html$fastcgi_script_name;

Additionally, it's a good idea-to-secure any upload directories your applications. The following configuration excerpt demonstrates securing an "/images" directory.

Location ~ \.php$ {

Include/etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;

if ($uri!~ "^/images/") {

Fastcgi_pass Unix:/var/run/php-fastcgi/php-fastcgi.socket;

}

Fastcgi_index index.php;

Fastcgi_param Script_filename/srv/www/www.example.com/public_html$fastcgi_script_name;

Enable and Start Services

Issue the following commands to enable the site:

cd/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Create a file named/etc/init.d/php-fastcgi with the following contents:

file:/etc/init.d/php-fastcgi

#!/bin/bash

php_script=/usr/bin/php-fastcgi

Fastcgi_user=www-data

Fastcgi_group=www-data

pid_dir=/var/run/php-fastcgi

Pid_file=/var/run/php-fastcgi/php-fastcgi.pid

Ret_val=0

Case "$" in

Start

if [[!-D $PID _dir]]

Then

mkdir $PID _dir

Chown $FASTCGI _user: $FASTCGI _group $PID _dir

chmod 0770 $PID _dir

Fi

if [[-R $PID _file]]

Then

echo "php-fastcgi already running with PID ' cat $PID _file '"

Ret_val=1

Else

$PHP _script

Ret_val=$?

Fi

;;

Stop

if [[-R $PID _file]]

Then

Kill ' Cat $PID _file '

RM $PID _file

Ret_val=$?

else  echo "Could not find PID file $PID _file"

Ret_val=1

Fi

;;

Restart

if [[-R $PID _file]]

Then  kill ' cat $PID _file '

RM $PID _file

Ret_val=$?

Else

echo "Could not find PID file $PID _file"

Fi

$PHP _script

Ret_val=$?

;;

Status

if [[-R $PID _file]]

Then

echo "php-fastcgi running with PID ' cat $PID _file '"

Ret_val=$?

Else

Echo ' Could not ' find PID file $PID _file, php-fastcgi does not appear ' be running '

Fi

;;

*)

echo "usage:php-fastcgi {start|stop|restart|status}"

Ret_val=1

;;

Esac

Start php-fastcgi and Nginx by issuing the following commands:

chmod +x/etc/init.d/php-fastcgi

UPDATE-RC.D php-fastcgi Defaults

/etc/init.d/php-fastcgi start

Test PHP with FastCGI

Create a file called "test.php" in your site ' s "public_html" directory with the following contents:

file:/srv/www/example.com/public_html/test.php

When you visit http://www.example.com/test.php in your browser, the standard "PHP info" output is shown. Congratulations, you ' ve configured the Nginx Web server to use php-fastcgi for dynamic content!

More information

wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these is provided in the hope that they would be useful, please note this we cannot vouch for the accuracy or Timeli Ness of externally hosted materials.

The Nginx homepage FastCGI Project homepage PHP documentation Basic Ngnix Configuration

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