Ruby on Rails
RailsOnFedora

Here’s a step-by-step guide for making Rails work with FastCGI? on Fedora Core 3 from scratch. A much simpler approach can be found at [http://linuxweblog.com/ruby-on-rails-install linuxweblog]

I began with a FC3 “Server” install. This tutorial is suitable to get Rails up and running on Apache2 with PostgreSQL

• Install your prerequisites. You’re going to have to build some things from source on this voyage.

$ sudo yum install gcc
$ sudo yum install httpd-devel readline-devel postgresql php-pgsql zlib-devel apr apr-devel apr-util-devel

• You’re responsible for setting up PostgreSQL yourself. Go ahead and take care of that.

• Install more prerequisites by hand. FedoraCore3 seems to have some zlib files, but they’re not actually installed? Under FC1, the zlib-devel package will work fine. (Not sure about FC3 however…) Anyway, download zlib from http://www.zlib.net/

$ ./configure
$ sudo make
$ sudo make install

If you are using Apache you will need mod_fcgi, and the FastCGI Development kit; These can be obtained from http://www.fastcgi.com . You will also need ruby-fcgi.

On Fedora Core 5 mod_fastcgi doesn’t compile, because it uses some deprecated symbols that have gone in Apache httpd 2.2. I found the rpm available at http://www.city-fan.org/ftp/contrib/websrv/ to be very helpful.

• Install the FastCGI? Devel kit:
  

  $ wget http://fastcgi.com/dist/fcgi-2.4.0.tar.gz 
  $ tar zxvf fcgi-2.4.0.tar.gz
  $ cd fcgi-2.4.0
  $ ./configure
  $ sudo make
  $ sudo make install

NB:FastCGI installs to /usr/local/lib, so if it isn’t there already you will need to add /usr/local/lib to /etc/ld.so.conf and run:

$ ldconfig -v

• Install mod_fastcgi:
  

  $ wget http://fastcgi.com/dist/mod_fastcgi-2.4.2.tar.gz 
  $ tar zxvf mod_fastcgi-2.4.2.tar.gz
  $ cd mod_fastcgi-2.4.2
  

At this point, read INSTALL.AP2. You’ll need to copy Makefile.AP2 to Makefile, and then edit the Makefile.AP2 to point to an Apache base dir, probably /etc/httpd if you have the httpd package installed.

$ sudo make 
$ sudo make install

NB:If you get the following error, install the httpd-devel package:

/usr/local/httpd/build/special.mk: No such file or directory

NB:If you use Apache2.2, and encounter following error:

'ap_null_cleanup' undeclared (first use in this function)

Please apply this patch to fcgi.h:

@@ -73,6 +73,36 @@
 #define ap_reset_timeout(a)
 #define ap_unblock_alarms()

+/* starting with apache 2.2 the backward-compatibility defines for
+ * 1.3 APIs are not available anymore. Define them ourselves here.
+ */
+#ifndef ap_copy_table
+
+#define ap_copy_table apr_table_copy
+#define ap_cpystrn apr_cpystrn
+#define ap_destroy_pool apr_pool_destroy
+#define ap_isspace apr_isspace
+#define ap_make_array apr_array_make
+#define ap_make_table apr_table_make
+#define ap_null_cleanup apr_pool_cleanup_null 
+#define ap_palloc apr_palloc
+#define ap_pcalloc apr_pcalloc
+#define ap_psprintf apr_psprintf
+#define ap_pstrcat apr_pstrcat
+#define ap_pstrdup apr_pstrdup
+#define ap_pstrndup apr_pstrndup
+#define ap_push_array apr_array_push
+#define ap_register_cleanup apr_pool_cleanup_register
+#define ap_snprintf apr_snprintf
+#define ap_table_add apr_table_add
+#define ap_table_do apr_table_do
+#define ap_table_get apr_table_get
+#define ap_table_set apr_table_set
+#define ap_table_setn apr_table_setn
+#define ap_table_unset apr_table_unset
+
+#endif /* defined(ap_copy_table) */
+
 #if (defined(HAVE_WRITEV) && !HAVE_WRITEV && !defined(NO_WRITEV)) || defined WIN32
 #define NO_WRITEV
 #endif

<code>LoadModule fastcgi_module modules/mod_fastcgi.so
<IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
    FastCgiIpcDir /tmp/fcgi_ipc/
    AddHandler fastcgi-script .fcgi
</IfModule></code>

<code>find ./ -name *cgi -print0 | xargs -0 chcon -h system_u:object_r:httpd_sys_script_exec_t</code>