How To Set Up Apache2 With mod_fcgid And PHP5 On Mandriva 2010.1 Spring

Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme
Follow me on Twitter

This tutorial describes how you can install Apache2 with mod_fcgid and PHP5 on Mandriva 2010.1 Spring. mod_fcgid is a compatible alternative to the older mod_fastcgi. It lets you execute PHP scripts with the permissions of their owners instead of the Apache user.

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Preliminary Note

I'm using a Mandriva 2010.1 Spring server in this tutorial with the hostname server1.example.com and the IP address 192.168.0.100.

I will create two Apache vhosts in this tutorial, www.example1.com and www.example2.com, to demonstrate the usage of mod_fcgid.

2 Installing Apache2/mod_fcgi/PHP5

First we update our package database:

urpmi.update -a

We can install Apache2, mod_fcgid, and PHP5 as follows (mod_fcgid requires apache-mpm-worker instead of apache-mpm-prefork, so if apache-mpm-prefork is currently installed, the Apache modules that rely on it will get removed, such as apache-mod_php):

urpmi apache-mpm-worker apache-mod_fcgid php-fcgi apache-mod_suexec

Next we open /etc/php-cgi-fcgi.ini...

vi /etc/php-cgi-fcgi.ini

... and uncomment the line cgi.fix_pathinfo=1:

[...]
; cgi.fix_pathinfo provides *real* PATH_INFO/PATH_TRANSLATED support for CGI.  PHP's
; previous behaviour was to set PATH_TRANSLATED to SCRIPT_FILENAME, and to not grok
; what PATH_INFO is.  For more information on PATH_INFO, see the cgi specs.  Setting
; this to 1 will cause PHP CGI to fix its paths to conform to the spec.  A setting
; of zero causes PHP to behave as before.  Default is 1.  You should fix your scripts
; to use SCRIPT_FILENAME rather than PATH_TRANSLATED.
; http://php.net/cgi.fix-pathinfo
cgi.fix_pathinfo=1
[...]

Then restart Apache:

/etc/init.d/httpd restart

3 Creating Vhosts For www.example1.com And www.example2.com

I will now create two vhosts, www.example1.com (with the document root /var/www/web1/web) and www.example2.com (with the document root /var/www/web2/web). www.example1.com will be owned by the user and group web1, and www.example2.com by the user and group web2.

First we create the users and groups:

groupadd web1
groupadd web2
useradd -s /bin/false -d /var/www/web1 -m -g web1 web1
useradd -s /bin/false -d /var/www/web2 -m -g web2 web2
chmod 755 /var/www/web1
chmod 755 /var/www/web2

Then we create the document roots and make them owned by the users/groups web1 resp. web2:

mkdir -p /var/www/web1/web
chown web1:web1 /var/www/web1/web
mkdir -p /var/www/web2/web
chown web2:web2 /var/www/web2/web

We will run PHP using suExec; suExec's document root is /var/www, as the following command shows:

/usr/sbin/suexec -V

[root@server1 ~]# /usr/sbin/suexec -V
 -D AP_DOC_ROOT="/var/www"
 -D AP_GID_MIN=100
 -D AP_HTTPD_USER="apache"
 -D AP_LOG_EXEC="/var/log/httpd/suexec_log"
 -D AP_SAFE_PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
 -D AP_SUEXEC_UMASK=077
 -D AP_UID_MIN=100
 -D AP_USERDIR_SUFFIX="public_html"
[root@server1 ~]#

Therefore we cannot call the PHP binary (/usr/bin/php-fcgi) directly because it is located outside suExec's document root. As suExec does not allow symlinks, the only way to solve the problem is to create a wrapper script for each web site in a subdirectory of /var/www; the wrapper script will then call the PHP binary /usr/bin/php-fcgi. The wrapper script must be owned by the user and group of each web site, therefore we need one wrapper script for each web site. I'm going to create the wrapper scripts in subdirectories of /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts, e.g. /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web1 and /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web2.

mkdir -p /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web1
mkdir -p /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web2

vi /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web1/php-fcgi-starter

#!/bin/sh
PHPRC=/etc/
export PHPRC
export PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=5000
export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=8
exec /usr/bin/php-fcgi

vi /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web2/php-fcgi-starter

#!/bin/sh
PHPRC=/etc/
export PHPRC
export PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=5000
export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=8
exec /usr/bin/php-fcgi

The PHPRC line contains the directory where the php.ini file is located (i.e., /etc/ translates to /etc/php.ini). PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS is the maximum number of requests before an fcgid process is stopped and a new one is launched. PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN defines the number of PHP children that will be launched.

The php-fcgi-starter scripts must be executable, and they (and the directories they are in) must be owned by the web site's user and group:

chmod 755 /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web1/php-fcgi-starter
chmod 755 /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web2/php-fcgi-starter
chown -R web1:web1 /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web1
chown -R web2:web2 /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web2

Now we create the Apache vhosts for www.example1.com and www.example2.com. Add the following two vhosts at the end of /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

[...]
<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
  AddHandler    fcgid-script .fcgi
  FcgidConnectTimeout 20
  PHP_Fix_Pathinfo_Enable 1
</IfModule>

NameVirtualHost *:80

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName www.example1.com
  ServerAlias example1.com
  ServerAdmin [email protected]
  DocumentRoot /var/www/web1/web/

  <IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
    SuexecUserGroup web1 web1
    <Directory /var/www/web1/web/>
      Options +ExecCGI
      AllowOverride All
      AddHandler fcgid-script .php
      FCGIWrapper /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web1/php-fcgi-starter .php
      Order allow,deny
      Allow from all
    </Directory>
  </IfModule>

  # ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
  # CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
  ServerSignature Off

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName www.example2.com
  ServerAlias example2.com
  ServerAdmin [email protected]
  DocumentRoot /var/www/web2/web/

  <IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
    SuexecUserGroup web2 web2
    <Directory /var/www/web2/web/>
      Options +ExecCGI
      AllowOverride All
      AddHandler fcgid-script .php
      FCGIWrapper /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web2/php-fcgi-starter .php
      Order allow,deny
      Allow from all
    </Directory>
  </IfModule>

  # ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
  # CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
  ServerSignature Off

</VirtualHost>

Make sure you fill in the right paths (and the correct user and group in the SuexecUserGroup lines).

Reload Apache afterwards:

/etc/init.d/httpd reload

4 Testing

Now we create a small PHP test file, for example in the www.example1.com web site...

vi /var/www/web1/web/info.php

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

... and call that file in a browser (http://www.example1.com/info.php). If all goes well, the output should look similar to this, and you should see CGI/FastCGI in the Server API line:

5 Custom php.ini for Each Web Site

Because each web site has its own php-fcgi-starter wrapper script, it is possible to define different php.ini files for different web sites. To demonstrate this, I will copy the default php-cgi-fcgi.ini (/etc/php-cgi-fcgi.ini) to the /var/www/web2/ directory and make www.example2.com use the php.ini from the /var/www/web2/ directory:

cp /etc/php-cgi-fcgi.ini /var/www/web2/
chown web2:web2 /var/www/web2/php.ini

(You can now modify /var/www/web2/php.ini to your likings.)

Then we open /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web2/php-fcgi-starter...

vi /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web2/php-fcgi-starter

... and put /var/www/web2/ in the PHPRC line:

#!/bin/sh
PHPRC=/var/www/web2/
export PHPRC
export PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=5000
export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=8
exec /usr/bin/php-fcgi

Reload Apache afterwards:

/etc/init.d/httpd reload

Create a new phpinfo(); file for www.example2.com...

vi /var/www/web2/web/info.php

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

... and call it in a browser (http://www.example2.com/info.php). The Loaded Configuration File line should now show /var/www/web2/php-cgi-fcgi.ini:

6 Changing Single PHP Configuration Settings

Instead of passing a whole new php.ini file to your web site, you can as well change single PHP configuration settings in the php-fcgi-starter wrapper script (or use a combination of both) by adding the -d switch to the PHP executable. For example, if I want to disable magic_quotes_gpc for the web site www.example2.com, I'd do it as follows:

vi /var/www/php-fcgi-scripts/web2/php-fcgi-starter

#!/bin/sh
PHPRC=/etc/
export PHPRC
export PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=5000
export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=8
exec /usr/bin/php-fcgi -d magic_quotes_gpc=off

Reload Apache afterwards:

/etc/init.d/httpd reload

Then call the info.php script again in a browser (http://www.example2.com/info.php) and search for the magic_quotes_gpc line - it should show Off now:

Log in or Sign up

On this page