First, you need to install the following.
sudo apt-get install php5-cgi nginx
Next, you need to edit the file /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params. It should look like this:
fastcgi_index index.php; fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING $query_string; fastcgi_param REQUEST_METHOD $request_method; fastcgi_param CONTENT_TYPE $content_type; fastcgi_param CONTENT_LENGTH $content_length; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name; fastcgi_param REQUEST_URI $request_uri; fastcgi_param DOCUMENT_URI $document_uri; fastcgi_param DOCUMENT_ROOT $document_root; fastcgi_param SERVER_PROTOCOL $server_protocol; fastcgi_param GATEWAY_INTERFACE CGI/1.1; fastcgi_param SERVER_SOFTWARE nginx/$nginx_version; fastcgi_param REMOTE_ADDR $remote_addr; fastcgi_param REMOTE_PORT $remote_port; fastcgi_param SERVER_ADDR $server_addr; fastcgi_param SERVER_PORT $server_port; fastcgi_param SERVER_NAME $server_name;
Now, you need to create a new site. Here is an example site that should work:
server { listen *:80; ## listen for ipv4 server_name www.mysite.net mysite.net; # This is where you define your host headers. root /var/www/html/; access_log /var/log/nginx/localhost.access.log; location / { index index.php index.html index.htm; } error_page 404 /index.php; location ~ \.php$ { # Filter out arbitrary code execution location ~ \..*/.*\.php$ {return 404;} include fastcgi_params; fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; } }
Take notice to the “root /var/www/html/;” line and how it is not inside the location tag. This is on purpose so that it is inherited by the other configuration blocks.
Now you just need to create a /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi file with the following content:
#!/bin/bash ### BEGIN INIT INFO # Provides: php-fcgi # Required-Start: $nginx $network # Required-Stop: $nginx # Default-Start: 2 3 4 5 # Default-Stop: 0 1 6 # Short-Description: starts php over fcgi # Description: starts php over fcgi ### END INIT INFO (( EUID )) && echo ‘You need to have root priviliges.’ && exit 1 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
Now, let’s make sure that the php-fastcgi script starts with the server:
sudo update-rc.d php-fastcgi defaults
And lastly, let’s start everything.
sudo service php-fastcgi start sudo service nginx start
That’s it! Your site should work at this point.