How to set up nginx with PHP 1.0.4 on Ubuntu

Continue from previous post : NGINX Installation

Step 1: Installation

$ sudo apt-get install php5-cgi

Step 2: Startup script for FastCGI

We want to create a Startup script for FastCGI PHP processes to run on every boot up. Here is the script I use:

!/bin/bash
BIND_DIR=/var/run/php-fastcgi
BIND="$BIND_DIR/php.sock"
USER=www-data
PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=8
PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=1000

PHP_CGI=/usr/bin/php-cgi
PHP_CGI_NAME=`basename $PHP_CGI`
PHP_CGI_ARGS="- USER=$USER PATH=/usr/bin PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=$PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=$PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS $PHP_CGI -b $BIND"
RETVAL=0

start() {
echo -n "Starting PHP FastCGI: "
mkdir $BIND_DIR
chown -R $USER $BIND_DIR
start-stop-daemon --quiet --start --background --chuid "$USER" --exec /usr/bin/env -- $PHP_CGI_ARGS
RETVAL=$?
echo "$PHP_CGI_NAME."
}
stop() {
echo -n "Stopping PHP FastCGI: "
killall -q -w -u $USER $PHP_CGI
RETVAL=$?
rm -rf $BIND_DIR
echo "$PHP_CGI_NAME."
}

case "$1" in
start)
start
;;
stop)
stop
;;
restart)
stop
start
;;
*)
echo "Usage: php-fastcgi {start|stop|restart}"
exit 1
;;
esac
exit $RETVAL

Put the text above into /etc/init.d/fastcgi-php. Then run:
$ sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/fastcgi-php
$ sudo update-rc.d fastcgi-php defaults
$ sudo /etc/init.d/fastcgi-php start

Note the variables at the top of the script and adjust to fit your available RAM. The the php-cgi processes will get bigger after a while so allot at least 16-20MB for each. This script is slightly different than most I’ve found, in that it uses a UNIX socket instead of a TCP one for communication. UNIX sockets are faster, and you never have to worry about your firewall setup.

Step 3: Enable PHP processing

Create a new file /etc/nginx/fastcgi_php with this content:
# pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on UNIX socket
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fastcgi/php.sock;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
}

Now define you virtual servers. You need to copy back the red colour text from this sample config to your default (make sure check your server path) :
server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com www.example.com;

access_log /var/log/nginx/example.com.access.log;

root /var/www/example.com;
index index.php index.html index.htm;
autoindex off;

error_page 404 /404.html;
error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;

# deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
# concurs with nginx's one
location ~ /\.ht {
deny all;
}
# Enable PHP
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_php;
}

Notice the next to last line of the file. You can include this line in all of your server definitions to enable PHP processing through FastCGI.

Step 4: Enable the site:

Enable the site and reload the configs:

sudo /etc/init.d/nginx reload