Ruby on Rails
HowToInstallOnCsoftNet

This article explains how to get Ruby on Rails to work on a http://csoft.net/ virtualhost.

• Check to see if at least ruby 1.8.2 is already installed on your machine:

  ruby -v

  If it is, skip the next step, otherwise:

• Get the latest stable ruby release from http://www.ruby-lang.org/ and install it in your home directory (this example will use $HOME/user for everything):

  
          gzcat ruby-1.8.3.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
          cd ruby-1.8.3
          nice ./configure --prefix=$HOME/user
          nice make
          nice make test
          nice make install
      

• Get and install the latest ruby-gems from http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126

  
          gzcat rubygems-0.8.11.tgz | tar -xvf -
          cd rubygems-0.8.11
          export GEM_HOME=$HOME/user/gems
          ruby setup.rb config --prefix=$HOME/user
          ruby setup.rb setup
          ruby setup.rb install
      

• Install Ruby on Rails via ruby-gems:

  gem install rails --include-dependencies --no-rdoc

• Install the FastCGI gem:

  gem install fcgi --no-rdoc -- --with-fcgi-dir=/usr/local

• Adjust your .profile so ruby, gem and rails can be found:
  • Put $HOME/user/bin and $HOME/user/gems/bin to your PATH, like so (sh/ksh/bash, goes into .profile):

    
                PATH=$HOME/user/bin:$HOME/user/gems/bin:$PATH
                export PATH
            

  • Also add GEM_HOME to your environment, like so (sh/ksh/bash again, into .profile):

    
                GEM_HOME=$HOME/user/gems
                export GEM_HOME
            

  Log out and back in or just cut&paste the commands above into your shell to update your environment.

• Test and create a rails example

  
          which ruby          # should point to the ruby in $HOME/user
          ruby -v         # should be at least 1.8.2
          gem environment         # installation directory and gem path should point to $HOME/user/gems
          cd ~/www/YOURWEBHOST
          rails railstest         # generate a ruby on rails structure
          cd railstest
          ./script/generate controller test           # generate a test controller
      

• Adjust .htaccess to contain these lines (most are already there):

  
          Options +FollowSymLinks +ExecCGI
          # we don't need to add handlers for FastCGI, thats alread in csoft's global httpd.conf
  
          RewriteEngine On
  
          # add this line
          RewriteBase /railstest/public
  
          RewriteRule ^$ index.html [QSA]
          RewriteRule ^([^.]+)$ $1.html [QSA]
          RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
          # change dispatch.cgi to dispatch.fcgi so we use FastCGI (CGI works too, but it's painfully slow)
          RewriteRule ^(.*)$ dispatch.fcgi [QSA,L]
  
          ErrorDocument 500 "<h2>Application error</h2>Rails application failed to start properly" 
      

• Now adjust dispatch.fcgi (and optionally dispatch.cgi if you insist on using CGI over FastCGI): Make sure the shebang line points to the ruby in your home directory, then add the next two lines so the top of dispatch.fcgi looks like this:

  
          #!/YOUR/HOME/user/bin/ruby
          ENV['GEM_HOME'] = '/YOUR/HOME/user/gems'         # adjust this - so rubygems can find the gems
          require 'rubygems'          # this is so the fcgi_handler includes the fcgi gem instead of looking for fcgi in site-ruby, which we didn't install
      

• You’re done! Going to http://YOUR.DOMAIN/railstest/public/test should yield “Unknown action No action responded to index”. That means mod_fastcgi called dispatch.fcgi which then looked for a controller named test and tried to call it’s default action (index). Remember to adjust .htaccess and dispatch.fcgi for every new rails app.