Catalyst::Manual::DeplUsernConCatalyst::Manual::Deployment::Apache::FastCGI(3)NAMECatalyst::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.
perl v5.14.2Catalyst::Manual::Deployment::Apache::FastCGI(3)
