Here’s my cobbled together guide. I installed this on Debian squeeze yesterday and exactly the same steps for Ubuntu 10.10 today.
apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client
apt-get install nginx
apt-get install php5-cgi
install some things you might need:
apt-get install php5-mysql php5-curl php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-json php5-mcrypt php5-memcache php5-mhash php5-ming php5-ps php5-pspell php5-recode php5-snmp php5-sqlite php5-tidy php5-xmlrpc php5-xsl
Make a Nginx default site:
mkdir -p /var/www/nginx-default
Let php-fastcgi start:
Create /etc/default/php-fastcgi
#
# Settings for php-cgi in external FASTCGI Mode
#
# Should php-fastcgi run automatically on startup? (default: no)
START=yes
# Which user runs PHP? (default: www-data)
EXEC_AS_USER=www-data
# Host and TCP port for FASTCGI-Listener (default: localhost:9000)
FCGI_HOST=127.0.0.1
FCGI_PORT=9000
# Environment variables, which are processed by PHP
PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=5
PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=1000
Create /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi
#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: php-fastcgi
# Required-Start: $all
# Required-Stop: $all
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start and stop php-cgi in external FASTCGI mode
# Description: Start and stop php-cgi in external FASTCGI mode
### END INIT INFO
# Author: Kurt Zankl
# Do NOT "set -e"
PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
DESC="php-cgi in external FASTCGI mode"
NAME=php-fastcgi
DAEMON=/usr/bin/php-cgi
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
SCRIPTNAME=/etc/init.d/$NAME
# Exit if the package is not installed
[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
# Read configuration variable file if it is present
[ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
# Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
. /lib/init/vars.sh
# Define LSB log_* functions.
# Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.0-6) to ensure that this file is present.
. /lib/lsb/init-functions
# If the daemon is not enabled, give the user a warning and then exit,
# unless we are stopping the daemon
if [ "$START" != "yes" -a "$1" != "stop" ]; then
log_warning_msg "To enable $NAME, edit /etc/default/$NAME and set START=yes"
exit 0
fi
# Process configuration
export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS
DAEMON_ARGS="-q -b $FCGI_HOST:$FCGI_PORT"
do_start()
{
# Return
# 0 if daemon has been started
# 1 if daemon was already running
# 2 if daemon could not be started
start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null || return 1
start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --background --make-pidfile --chuid $EXEC_AS_USER --startas $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_ARGS || return 2
}
do_stop()
{
# Return
# 0 if daemon has been stopped
# 1 if daemon was already stopped
# 2 if daemon could not be stopped
# other if a failure occurred
start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE > /dev/null # --name $DAEMON
RETVAL="$?"
[ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
# Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
# and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
# If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
# that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
# needed by services started subsequently. A last resort is to
# sleep for some time.
start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
[ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
# Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
rm -f $PIDFILE
return "$RETVAL"
}
case "$1" in
start)
[ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
do_start
case "$?" in
0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
esac
;;
stop)
[ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
do_stop
case "$?" in
0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
esac
;;
restart|force-reload)
log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
do_stop
case "$?" in
0|1)
do_start
case "$?" in
0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
*) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
esac
;;
*)
# Failed to stop
log_end_msg 1
;;
esac
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|restart|force-reload}" >&2
exit 3
;;
esac
Make symlink to /etc/rc2.d
cd /etc/rc2.d
ln -s ../init.d/php-fastcgi S02php-fastcgi
Edit /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini
and add this line:
cgi.fix_pathinfo=1
Make php-fastcgi executable
chmod +x /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi
Start and test the servers
/etc/init.d/php-fastcgi start
/etc/init.d/nginx restart
Create fastcgi.conf in /etc/nginx/
fastcgi_param GATEWAY_INTERFACE CGI/1.1;
fastcgi_param SERVER_SOFTWARE nginx;
fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING $query_string;
fastcgi_param REQUEST_METHOD $request_method;
fastcgi_param CONTENT_TYPE $content_type;
fastcgi_param CONTENT_LENGTH $content_length;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME $fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param REQUEST_URI $request_uri;
fastcgi_param DOCUMENT_URI $document_uri;
fastcgi_param DOCUMENT_ROOT $document_root;
fastcgi_param SERVER_PROTOCOL $server_protocol;
fastcgi_param REMOTE_ADDR $remote_addr;
fastcgi_param REMOTE_PORT $remote_port;
fastcgi_param SERVER_ADDR $server_addr;
fastcgi_param SERVER_PORT $server_port;
fastcgi_param SERVER_NAME $server_name
Adjust the default config for Nginx in /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
This is for a basic WordPress setup:
upstream php {
server 127.0.0.1:9000;
}
server {
listen 80;
server_name mywebsite.com;
rewrite ^ http://www.mywebsite.com$request_uri? permanent;
}
server
{
listen 80;
server_name www.mywebsite.com;
access_log /var/log/nginx/localhost.access.log;
server_name_in_redirect off;
index index.php;
root /var/www;
location / {
# This is cool because no php is touched for static content
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php;
}
#send php requests to fast cgi
location ~ .php$ {
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+.php)(/.+)$;
fastcgi_pass php;
include fastcgi.conf;
}
#rewrite rule for files
location ~* .(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico)$ {
expires max;
log_not_found off;
}
#rewrite rule for sitemap under the lines that handles upload files
rewrite ^(.*/)?sitemap.xml wp-content/sitemap.php;
}
Symlink sites-enabled/default to sites-available/default.
Restart Nginx after altering it.
Tail your error logs and troubleshoot anything out of the ordinary:
tail /var/log/nginx/error.log
If you want to clear it:
cat /dev/null > /var/log/nginx/error.log
Thanks to howtoforge and nginx tips from http://box.matto.nl/