Install PHP and NGINX on Ubuntu

posted by Steve on 06 Feb 2011

Nginx and PHP make a high performance combination on Ubuntu; here's how to get the system up and running.

Apache is a great webserver, but it may pack along more than you need. If all you need is a simple webserver with php then use nginx.

I've used this method to install on ubuntu 8.10, 9.04, 9.10, 10.4 and 10.10

Here are the steps to get it on your system.

Install nginx:

sudo apt-get install nginx

Install spawn-fcgi:

sudo apt-get install spawn-fcgi

Install php :

sudo apt-get install php5-cgi

Create a startup script for php:

sudo vi /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi

paste the following in that file

#!/bin/bash
BIND=127.0.0.1:9000
USER=www-data
PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=15
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: "
    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 $PHP_CGI
    RETVAL=$?
    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

Make the file executable:

sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi

Try it:

sudo /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi start

Make the script run at boot:

sudo update-rc.d php-fastcgi defaults

Add this in your nginx script (usually in sites-enabled):

location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass    127.0.0.1:9000;
    fastcgi_index   index.php;
    fastcgi_param   SCRIPT_FILENAME /var/www/nginx-default$fastcgi_script_name;
    include         fastcgi_params;
}

Restart nginx:

sudo service nginx restart

Now create a php test file and test this:

vi phptest.html

put this in it:

<?php
echo "hello"
phpinfo();
?>

Browse over to phptest.html and see if you get the php info page. If so, you are successful.

RockyCode

Install PHP and NGINX on Ubuntu

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