NAME¶
Catalyst::Manual::Deployment::Apache::FastCGI - Deploying Catalyst with FastCGI
on Apache
Setup¶
1. Install Apache with mod_fastcgi
mod_fastcgi for Apache is a third-party module, and can be found at
<
http://www.fastcgi.com/>. It is also packaged in many distributions
(for example, libapache2-mod-fastcgi in Debian). You will also need to install
the FCGI module from CPAN.
Important Note! If you experience difficulty properly rendering pages, try
disabling Apache's mod_deflate (Deflate Module), e.g. 'a2dismod deflate'.
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.
Standalone server mode
FastCgiExternalServer /tmp/myapp.fcgi -socket /tmp/myapp.socket
Alias /myapp/ /tmp/myapp.fcgi/
# Or, run at the root
Alias / /tmp/myapp.fcgi/
# 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 listening on the socket /tmp/mapp.socket. Note
that /tmp/myapp.fcgi
MUST NOT exist -- it's a virtual file name. With
some versions of "mod_fastcgi" or "mod_fcgid", you can use
any name you like, but some require that the virtual filename end in
".fcgi".
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.
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/
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.
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
<
http://www.fastcgi.com/mod_fastcgi/docs/mod_fastcgi.html>
Authorization header with mod_fastcgi or mod_cgi
By default, mod_fastcgi/mod_cgi do not pass along the Authorization header, so
modules like "Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Credential::HTTP"
will not work. To enable pass-through of this header, add the following
mod_rewrite directives:
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} ^(.+)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1 [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%1,PT]
2. Configure your application
# Serve static content directly
DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root
Alias /static /var/www/MyApp/root/static
FastCgiServer /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -processes 3
Alias /myapp/ /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/
# Or, run at the root
Alias / /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/
The above commands will launch 3 app processes and make the app available at
/myapp/
Standalone server mode
While not as easy as the previous method, running your app as an external server
gives you much more flexibility.
First, launch your app as a standalone server listening on a socket.
script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -l /tmp/myapp.socket -n 5 -p /tmp/myapp.pid -d
You can also listen on a TCP port if your web server is not on the same machine.
script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -l :8080 -n 5 -p /tmp/myapp.pid -d
You will probably want to write an init script to handle starting/stopping of
the app using the pid file.
Now, we simply configure Apache to connect to the running server.
# 502 is a Bad Gateway error, and will occur if the backend server is down
# This allows us to display a friendly static page that says "down for
# maintenance"
Alias /_errors /var/www/MyApp/root/error-pages
ErrorDocument 502 /_errors/502.html
FastCgiExternalServer /tmp/myapp.fcgi -socket /tmp/myapp.socket
Alias /myapp/ /tmp/myapp.fcgi/
# Or, run at the root
Alias / /tmp/myapp.fcgi/
More Info
Catalyst::Manual::Deployment::FastCGI.
AUTHORS¶
Catalyst Contributors, see Catalyst.pm
COPYRIGHT¶
This library is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as Perl itself.