=head1 WEB SERVER CONFIGURATIONS
-=head2 Apache 1.x, 2.x
+=head2 Standalone FastCGI Server
+
+In server mode the application runs as a standalone server and accepts
+connections from a web server. The application can be on the same machine as
+the web server, on a remote machine, or even on multiple remote machines.
+Advantages of this method include running the Catalyst application as a
+different user than the web server, and the ability to set up a scalable
+server farm.
-Apache requires the mod_fastcgi module. The following config will let Apache
-control the running of your FastCGI processes.
+To start your application in server mode, install the FCGI::ProcManager
+module and then use the included fastcgi.pl script.
- # Launch the FastCGI processes
- FastCgiIpcDir /tmp
- FastCgiServer /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -idle-timeout 300 -processes 5
+ $ script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -l /tmp/myapp.socket -n 5
- <VirtualHost *>
- ScriptAlias / /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/
- </VirtualHost>
+Command line options for fastcgi.pl include:
+
+ -d -daemon Daemonize the server.
+ -p -pidfile Write a pidfile with the pid of the process manager.
+ -l -listen Listen on a socket path, hostname:port, or :port.
+ -n -nproc The number of processes started to handle requests.
-You can also tell Apache to connect to an external FastCGI server:
+See below for the specific web server configurations for using the external
+server.
- # Start the external server (requires FCGI::ProcManager)
- $ script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -l /tmp/myapp.socket -n 5
+=head2 Apache 1.x, 2.x
+
+Apache requires the mod_fastcgi module. The same module supports both
+Apache 1 and 2.
+
+There are three ways to run your application under FastCGI on Apache: server,
+static, and dynamic.
+
+=head3 Standalone server mode
+
+ FastCgiExternalServer /tmp/myapp -socket /tmp/myapp.socket
+ Alias /myapp/ /tmp/myapp/
+
+ # Or, run at the root
+ Alias / /tmp/myapp/
+
+ # Optionally, rewrite the path when accessed without a trailing slash
+ RewriteRule ^/myapp$ myapp/ [R]
+
+The FastCgiExternalServer directive tells Apache that when serving /tmp/myapp
+to use the FastCGI application listenting on the socket /tmp/mapp.socket.
+Note that /tmp/myapp does not need to exist -- it's a virtual file name.
+
+It's likely that Apache is not configured to serve files in /tmp, so the
+Alias directive maps the url path /myapp/ to the (virtual) file that runs the
+FastCGI application. The trailing slashes are important as their use will
+correctly set the PATH_INFO environment variable used by Catalyst to
+determine the request path. If you would like to be able to access your app
+without a trailing slash (http://server/myapp), you can use the above
+RewriteRule directive.
+
+=head3 Static mode
+
+The term 'static' is misleading, but in static mode Apache uses its own
+FastCGI Process Manager to start the application processes. This happens at
+Apache startup time. In this case you do not run your application's
+fastcgi.pl script -- that is done by Apache. Apache then maps URIs to the
+FastCGI script to run your application.
+
+ FastCgiServer /path/to/myapp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -processes 3
+ Alias /myapp/ /path/to/myapp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/
- # Note that the path used in FastCgiExternalServer can be any path
- FastCgiIpcDir /tmp
- FastCgiExternalServer /tmp/myapp_fastcgi.pl -socket /tmp/myapp.socket
+FastCgiServer tells Apache to start three processes of your application at
+startup. The Alias command maps a path to the FastCGI application. Again,
+the trailing slashes are important.
- <VirtualHost *>
- ScriptAlias / /tmp/myapp_fastcgi.pl/
+=head3 Dynamic mode
+
+In FastCGI dynamic mode, Apache will run your application on demand,
+typically by requesting a file with a specific extension (e.g. .fcgi). ISPs
+often use this type of setup to provide FastCGI support to many customers.
+
+In this mode it is often enough to place or link your *_fastcgi.pl script in
+your cgi-bin directory with the extension of .fcgi. In dynamic mode Apache
+must be able to run your application as a CGI script so ExecCGI must be
+enabled for the directory.
+
+ AddHandler fastcgi-script .fcgi
+
+The above tells Apache to run any .fcgi file as a FastCGI application.
+
+Here is a complete example:
+
+ <VirtualHost *:80>
+ ServerName www.myapp.com
+ DocumentRoot /path/to/MyApp
+
+ # Allow CGI script to run
+ <Directory /path/to/MyApp>
+ Options +ExecCGI
+ </Directory>
+
+ # Tell Apache this is a FastCGI application
+ <Files myapp_fastcgi.pl>
+ SetHandler fastcgi-script
+ </Files>
</VirtualHost>
+
+Then a request for /script/myapp_fastcgi.pl will run the
+application.
For more information on using FastCGI under Apache, visit
L<http://www.fastcgi.com/mod_fastcgi/docs/mod_fastcgi.html>
=head2 Lighttpd
-This configuration was tested with Lighttpd 1.4.7.
+These configurations were tested with Lighttpd 1.4.7.
+
+=head3 Standalone server mode
+
+ server.document-root = "/var/www/MyApp/root"
+
+ fastcgi.server = (
+ "" => (
+ "MyApp" => (
+ "socket" => "/tmp/myapp.socket",
+ "check-local" => "disable"
+ )
+ )
+ )
+
+=head3 Static mode
server.document-root = "/var/www/MyApp/root"
)
)
-You can also run your application at any non-root location.
+Note that in newer versions of lighttpd, the min-procs and idle-timeout
+values are disabled. The above example would start 5 processes.
- fastcgi.server = (
- "/myapp" => (
- "MyApp" => (
- # same as above
- )
- )
- )
+=head3 Non-root configuration
-You can also use an external server:
-
- # Start the external server (requires FCGI::ProcManager)
- $ script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -l /tmp/myapp.socket -n 5
-
- server.document-root = "/var/www/MyApp/root"
+You can also run your application at any non-root location with either of the
+above modes.
fastcgi.server = (
- "" => (
+ "/myapp" => (
"MyApp" => (
- "socket" => "/tmp/myapp.socket",
- "check-local" => "disable"
+ # same as above
)
)
)
Andy Grundman, <andy@hybridized.org>
+=head1 THANKS
+
+Bill Moseley, for documentation updates and testing.
+
=head1 COPYRIGHT
This program is free software, you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
projects / catagits/Catalyst-Runtime.git / commitdiff