Nginx and PHP-FastCGI on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid)
The nginx web server is a fast, lightweight server designed to efficiently handle the needs of both low and high traffic websites. Although commonly used to serve static content, it's quite capable of handling dynamic pages as well. This guide will help you get nginx up and running with PHP via FastCGI on your Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid) Linux VPS.
It is assumed that you've already followed the steps outlined in our getting started guide. These steps should be performed via a root login to your Linode VPS over SSH.
Contents
- Set the Hostname
- Install Required Packages
- Configure Virtual Hosting
- Create Directories
- UNIX Sockets Configuration Example
- TCP Sockets Configuration Example
- Important Security Considerations
- Enable and Start Services
- Test PHP with FastCGI
- More Information
Set the Hostname
Before you begin installing and configuring the components described in this guide, please make sure you've followed our instructions for setting your hostname. Issue the following commands to make sure it is set properly:
hostname hostname -f
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 apt-get install nginx php5-cli php5-cgi spawn-fcgi psmisc
Configure Virtual Hosting
Create Directories
In this guide, the domain "example.com" is 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 chown -R www-data:www-data /srv/www/www.example.com
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 {
server_name www.example.com example.com;
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 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;
}
}
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 $PHP5
Make it executable by issuing the following command:
chmod +x /usr/bin/php-fastcgi
TCP Sockets Configuration Example
Alternately, you may wish to use TCP sockets instead. If so, modify your nginx virtual host configuration file to resemble the following example. Again, make sure to replace all instances of "example.com" with your domain name.
File:/etc/nginx/sites-available/www.example.com
server {
server_name www.example.com example.com;
access_log /srv/www/www.example.com/logs/access.log;
error_log /srv/www/www.example.com/logs/error.log;
root /srv/www/www.example.com/public_html;
location / {
index index.html index.htm;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
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
#!/bin/bash
FASTCGI_USER=www-data
FASTCGI_GROUP=www-data
ADDRESS=127.0.0.1
PORT=9000
PIDFILE=/var/run/php-fastcgi/php-fastcgi.pid
CHILDREN=6
PHP5=/usr/bin/php5-cgi
/usr/bin/spawn-fcgi -a $ADDRESS -p $PORT -P $PIDFILE -C $CHILDREN -u $FASTCGI_USER -g $FASTCGI_GROUP -f $PHP5
Make it executable by issuing the following command:
chmod +x /usr/bin/php-fastcgi
Important Security Considerations
If you're planning to run applications that support file uploads (images, for example), the above configurations may expose you to a security risk by allowing arbitrary code execution. The short explanation for this behavior is that a properly crafted URI which ends in ".php", in combination with a malicious image file that actually contains valid PHP, can result in the image being processed as PHP.
To mitigate this issue, you may wish to modify your configuration to include a try_files directive. Please note that this fix requires nginx and the php-fcgi workers to reside on the same server.
location ~ \.php$ {
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 may use. 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/ ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/www.example.com
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 "$1" 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 to be running"
fi
;;
*)
echo "Usage: php-fastcgi {start|stop|restart|status}"
RET_VAL=1
;;
esac
exit $RET_VAL
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 /etc/init.d/nginx 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/www/public_html/test.php
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
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
You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.
- The nginx Homepage
- FastCGI Project Homepage
- PHP Documentation
- Basic Ngnix Configuration
