Ruby on Rails
HowToInstallOnCsoftNet (Version #2)

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!


        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 “Application errorRails 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:


        #!/home1/sdfjkl/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).