Scgi? do i need it for ruby?

charl · April 3, 2006, 11:20pm

This might be obvious to everyone but it is something that i haven’t
been able to find an answer to. Do I need to have either
scgi/fastcgi/cgi running on either lighttpd/apache for ruby scripts to
work? If yes, why? I have installed the scgi server and i can get the
service to run, i have also installed the following mod_fastcgi/2.4.2
mod_ruby/1.2.4 Ruby/1.8.2(2004-12-25) mod_scgi, but i still can’t run my
rails cookbook app working on lighttpd or apache. i don’t know how to
load my ruby site, what would my url be if my sever root is on
c:\webdev\www? Am i missing something? Raily desperate

charl · April 3, 2006, 11:27pm

On 4/3/06, charl souma [email protected] wrote:

This might be obvious to everyone but it is something that i haven’t
been able to find an answer to. Do I need to have either
scgi/fastcgi/cgi running on either lighttpd/apache for ruby scripts to
work? If yes, why? I have installed the scgi server and i can get the
service to run, i have also installed the following mod_fastcgi/2.4.2
mod_ruby/1.2.4 Ruby/1.8.2(2004-12-25) mod_scgi, but i still can’t run my
rails cookbook app working on lighttpd or apache. i don’t know how to
load my ruby site, what would my url be if my sever root is on
c:\webdev\www? Am i missing something? Raily desperate

What errors are you getting?

Your server root has nothing to do with the URL. If you’re trying to
include “webdev/www” into your URL then that’s why it’s not working.

charl · April 4, 2006, 1:18am

Do you need Apache/Lighty/SCGI/FCGI to learn ruby? you can just use
WebRick for now and forget about FCGI, SCGI, CGI etc…or have you
said to your boss that you’ll be having his latest project online next
week?

In this case if you bear with me one or two days I’ll be releasing a
Rails deployment kit on WIndows using the latest tools available
(Apache 2.2, FastCGI) stay tuned. You can always try InstantRails, I
think that will do what you want.

Gael

charl · April 4, 2006, 9:28pm

Gael P. wrote:

Do you need Apache/Lighty/SCGI/FCGI to learn ruby? you can just use
WebRick for now and forget about FCGI, SCGI, CGI etc…or have you
said to your boss that you’ll be having his latest project online next
week?

In this case if you bear with me one or two days I’ll be releasing a
Rails deployment kit on WIndows using the latest tools available
(Apache 2.2, FastCGI) stay tuned. You can always try InstantRails, I
think that will do what you want.

Gael

ok that sounds great, i’m about to try instantrails, but not to use only
to understand where i’m going wrong? i like to know what i’m doing wrong
rather than just take the easy option out. thanks for your advice, i’m
very keen to see your development, sounds like you are the right person
to talk to.
charl

charl · April 4, 2006, 10:46pm

James L. wrote:

On 4/3/06, charl souma [email protected] wrote:

This might be obvious to everyone but it is something that i haven’t
been able to find an answer to. Do I need to have either
scgi/fastcgi/cgi running on either lighttpd/apache for ruby scripts to
work? If yes, why? I have installed the scgi server and i can get the
service to run, i have also installed the following mod_fastcgi/2.4.2
mod_ruby/1.2.4 Ruby/1.8.2(2004-12-25) mod_scgi, but i still can’t run my
rails cookbook app working on lighttpd or apache. i don’t know how to
load my ruby site, what would my url be if my sever root is on
c:\webdev\www? Am i missing something? Raily desperate

What errors are you getting?

Your server root has nothing to do with the URL. If you’re trying to
include “webdev/www” into your URL then that’s why it’s not working.

i haven’t quite figured out how to add a new post for the same topic so
i have to reply with quote. my document root entry in lighttpd is
[server.document-root = “C:/lighttpd/htdocs”] i cant change it for some
reason. port:3000;host:127.0.0.1, the url i was trying was wrong, but
now i’ve tested the same app with webrick and it worked first time my
url is http://127.0.0.1/message/new ,so it must be my lighttpd conf. the
error i get is ‘404 - Not Found’. you say i don’t need scgi for my rails
site, i’m not playing with any of those fancy things until i can get a
server(lighttpd) running with rails. i’m not on a deadline either, i’m
mostly doing this because i want to learn from it and it’s a challenge

charl · April 5, 2006, 12:09am

Hi Charl, First of all if you want to use Lighttpd on Windows you have
to go with SCGI, I never got FastCGI to work with Lightty on Windows
and I dont think anyone has, to be honest.
So as far as installation is concerned you need to get SCGI Rails
runner from Zed’s web site:
http://www.zedshaw.com/projects/scgi_rails/
I believe mod_scgi for lightty shipped with lightty so you have
nothing to do here, then follow the instructions here:
http://www.zedshaw.com/projects/scgi_rails/lighttpd.html

If you already have the SCGI server running then oyu should be there,
just make sure the IP and Port in Lighttpd config and scgi.yaml in
Rails/Config folder match, also make sure you have disable the POSIX
signals, here’s an example of a SCGI.YAML config file:

:password: XXXXXXXXXXXX
:port: 9001
:logfile: log/scgi.log
:config: config/scgi.yaml
:disable_signals: true
:control_url: druby://127.0.0.1:8999
:env: production
:host: 127.0.0.1

You generate this using Rail runner scgi_ctrl script in your Rails
folder, dont forget that scgi_cluster doesn’t work on Windows, you
have to use scgi_service.

Gael

charl · April 5, 2006, 8:37am

Can you post your lighttpd.conf files?

No you cant restart gracefully on windows.

charl · April 5, 2006, 12:44am

Gael P. wrote:

Hi Charl, First of all if you want to use Lighttpd on Windows you have
to go with SCGI, I never got FastCGI to work with Lightty on Windows
and I dont think anyone has, to be honest.
So as far as installation is concerned you need to get SCGI Rails
runner from Zed’s web site:
http://www.zedshaw.com/projects/scgi_rails/
I believe mod_scgi for lightty shipped with lightty so you have
nothing to do here, then follow the instructions here:
http://www.zedshaw.com/projects/scgi_rails/lighttpd.html

If you already have the SCGI server running then oyu should be there,
just make sure the IP and Port in Lighttpd config and scgi.yaml in
Rails/Config folder match, also make sure you have disable the POSIX
signals, here’s an example of a SCGI.YAML config file:

:password: XXXXXXXXXXXX
:port: 9001
:logfile: log/scgi.log
:config: config/scgi.yaml
:disable_signals: true
:control_url: druby://127.0.0.1:8999
:env: production
:host: 127.0.0.1

You generate this using Rail runner scgi_ctrl script in your Rails
folder, dont forget that scgi_cluster doesn’t work on Windows, you
have to use scgi_service.

Gael

ok i believe you if you say so, i have already got scgi server running
with signals off, my scgi.yaml file is identical, except in a different
order. when i start the service i don’t get any indication that
something has happend, but if i check the status i get the following
â?[32mâ?[1mStatus as of Wed Apr 05 00:25:15 South Africa Standard Time
2006:â?[0
PID: 976 Started: Wed Apr 05 00:22:40 South Africa Standard Time
2006
Connected Requests: 0
Conns/Second: Not Set
Total Conns: 0
Max Simultaneous Conns: 1073741823
Shutdown Started: false
Processing Time: 1.671 2.234 0.0 0.0
Current Settings:

disable_signals: true
host: 127.0.0.1
password: XXXXXXXXX
config: config/scgi.yaml
port: 9999
env: production
logfile: log/scgi.log
control_url: druby://127.0.0.1:8999

so it seems like it’s all good, but my app still doesn’t start 404 Not
Found but a few seconds before i checked with webrick and it works

i also can’t restart scgi ‘gracefully’ get the following - is this due
to POSIX being switched off
C:\lighttpd\htdocs\contact>scgi_service config restart
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/yaml.rb:129:in `initialize’: Permission denied -
config (Errno::EACCES)
no errors in my scgi.log file - thanks for your advice once a gain, hope
you can spot what the problem is

charl · April 5, 2006, 9:44am

OK I can see why you’re struggling now, you didnt setup Lighttpd to
send the request to the SCGI rail runner, have a look at this:

http://www.zedshaw.com/projects/scgi_rails/lighttpd.html

This will explain how to configure Lighttpd to send request to Rails via
SCGI.

Choosen extract:

Make sure you have mod_scgi mentioned in the modules:

server.modules = ( “mod_rewrite”, “mod_redirect”, “mod_access”,
“mod_accesslog”, “mod_compress”, “mod_scgi” )

Tell lighttpd to route 404 errors to your SCGI server with this
stupidity:

server.error-handler-404 = “/dispatch.scgi”

Next you have to tell lighttpd to route all requests for dispatch.scgi
to SCGI and not to check for local.

scgi.server = ( “dispatch.scgi” => ((
“host” => “127.0.0.1”,
“port” => 9999,
“check-local” => “disable”
)) )

charl · April 5, 2006, 9:04am

Gael P. wrote:

Can you post your lighttpd.conf files?

No you cant restart gracefully on windows.

here is half my conf file, the lower half is all commented, and i didn’t
want to waste space on the forum - i’ve stared at this file until it put
me to sleep hope it sheds some lighty

lighttpd configuration file

use it as a base for lighttpd 1.0.0 and above

$Id: lighttpd.conf,v 1.7 2004/11/03 22:26:05 weigon Exp $

############ Options you really have to take care of
####################

modules to load

at least mod_access and mod_accesslog should be loaded

all other module should only be loaded if really neccesary

- saves some time

- saves memory

server.modules = (
“mod_rewrite”,
“mod_redirect”,

“mod_alias”,

                            "mod_access",

“mod_cml”,

“mod_trigger_b4_dl”,

“mod_auth”,

“mod_status”,

“mod_setenv”,

“mod_fastcgi”,

“mod_proxy”,

“mod_simple_vhost”,

“mod_evhost”,

“mod_userdir”,

“mod_cgi”,

“mod_compress”,

“mod_ssi”,

                            "mod_scgi",

“mod_usertrack”,

“mod_expire”,

“mod_secdownload”,

“mod_rrdtool”,

                            "mod_accesslog" )

a static document-root, for virtual-hosting take look at the

server.virtual-* options

server.document-root = “C:/lighttpd/htdocs”

where to send error-messages to

server.errorlog = “C:/lighttpd/logs/lighttpd.error.log”

files to check for if …/ is requested

index-file.names = ( “index.php”, “index.html”,
“index.htm”, “default.htm” )

mimetype mapping

mimetype.assign = (
“.pdf” => “application/pdf”,
“.sig” => “application/pgp-signature”,
“.spl” => “application/futuresplash”,
“.class” => “application/octet-stream”,
“.ps” => “application/postscript”,
“.torrent” => “application/x-bittorrent”,
“.dvi” => “application/x-dvi”,
“.gz” => “application/x-gzip”,
“.pac” => “application/x-ns-proxy-autoconfig”,
“.swf” => “application/x-shockwave-flash”,
“.tar.gz” => “application/x-tgz”,
“.tgz” => “application/x-tgz”,
“.tar” => “application/x-tar”,
“.zip” => “application/zip”,
“.mp3” => “audio/mpeg”,
“.m3u” => “audio/x-mpegurl”,
“.wma” => “audio/x-ms-wma”,
“.wax” => “audio/x-ms-wax”,
“.ogg” => “application/ogg”,
“.wav” => “audio/x-wav”,
“.gif” => “image/gif”,
“.jpg” => “image/jpeg”,
“.jpeg” => “image/jpeg”,
“.png” => “image/png”,
“.xbm” => “image/x-xbitmap”,
“.xpm” => “image/x-xpixmap”,
“.xwd” => “image/x-xwindowdump”,
“.css” => “text/css”,
“.html” => “text/html”,
“.htm” => “text/html”,
“.js” => “text/javascript”,
“.asc” => “text/plain”,
“.c” => “text/plain”,
“.cpp” => “text/plain”,
“.log” => “text/plain”,
“.conf” => “text/plain”,
“.text” => “text/plain”,
“.txt” => “text/plain”,
“.dtd” => “text/xml”,
“.xml” => “text/xml”,
“.mpeg” => “video/mpeg”,
“.mpg” => “video/mpeg”,
“.mov” => “video/quicktime”,
“.qt” => “video/quicktime”,
“.avi” => “video/x-msvideo”,
“.asf” => “video/x-ms-asf”,
“.asx” => “video/x-ms-asf”,
“.wmv” => “video/x-ms-wmv”,
“.bz2” => “application/x-bzip”,
“.tbz” => “application/x-bzip-compressed-tar”,
“.tar.bz2” => “application/x-bzip-compressed-tar”
)

Use the “Content-Type” extended attribute to obtain mime type if

possible
#mimetype.use-xattr = “enable”

send a different Server: header

be nice and keep it at lighttpd

server.tag = “lighttpd/1.4.9a (Win32)”

accesslog module

accesslog.filename = “C:/lighttpd/logs/access.log”

deny access the file-extensions

~ is for backupfiles from vi, emacs, joe, …

.inc is often used for code includes which should in general not be

part

of the document-root

url.access-deny = ( “~”, “.inc” )

$HTTP[“url”] =~ “.pdf$” {
server.range-requests = “disable”
}

which extensions should not be handle via static-file transfer

.php, .pl, .fcgi are most often handled by mod_fastcgi or mod_cgi

static-file.exclude-extensions = ( “.php”, “.pl”, “.fcgi” )

######### Options that are good to be but not neccesary to be changed
#######

bind to port (default: 80)

server.port = 3000

bind to localhost (default: all interfaces)

server.bind = “127.0.0.1”

error-handler for status 404

Server.error-handler-404 = “/error-handler.html”
Server.error-handler-404 = “/error-handler.php”

to help the rc.scripts

Server.pid-file = “/var/run/lighttpd.pid”

virtual hosts

If you want name-based virtual hosting add the next three settings

and load

mod_simple_vhost

document-root =

virtual-server-root + virtual-server-default-host +

virtual-server-docroot

or

virtual-server-root + http-host + virtual-server-docroot

#simple-vhost.server-root = “/home/weigon/wwwroot/servers/”
#simple-vhost.default-host = “grisu.home.kneschke.de”
#simple-vhost.document-root = “/pages/”

Format: .html

→ …/status-404.html for ‘File not found’

Server.errorfile-prefix =
“/home/weigon/projects/lighttpd/doc/status-”

virtual directory listings

#dir-listing.activate = “enable”

charl · April 5, 2006, 11:56am

Gael P. wrote:

OK I can see why you’re struggling now, you didnt setup Lighttpd to
send the request to the SCGI rail runner, have a look at this:

http://www.zedshaw.com/projects/scgi_rails/lighttpd.html

This will explain how to configure Lighttpd to send request to Rails via
SCGI.

Choosen extract:

Make sure you have mod_scgi mentioned in the modules:

server.modules = ( “mod_rewrite”, “mod_redirect”, “mod_access”,
“mod_accesslog”, “mod_compress”, “mod_scgi” )

Tell lighttpd to route 404 errors to your SCGI server with this
stupidity:

server.error-handler-404 = “/dispatch.scgi”

Next you have to tell lighttpd to route all requests for dispatch.scgi
to SCGI and not to check for local.

scgi.server = ( “dispatch.scgi” => ((
“host” => “127.0.0.1”,
“port” => 9999,
“check-local” => “disable”
)) )

ok, i seen this bit of code before, but i don’t understand what it does,
do i need to have a file called dispatch.scgi, i read some where that it
is a virtual file, i was getting so many problems with scgi that i
thought by removing some code i could identify the problem and i never
put this back in again. so now with your advice i have updated my .conf,
and it looks like i have some type of communication, and i have an error
to prove it, which is great, at least i know something is working, Gael
I don’t expect that you should try figure this out for me too, as you
have been a pretty big help already, but if you could advise me what to
check and where to look i’d appreciate it.

the error is : see below => right at the bottom i see scgi_service
mentioned so i assume it is communicating with rails. cool. strange that
this is happening cos webrick worked(database and all) as i mentioned
before. i assume i need to set mysql settings somewhere but i’m not sure
where, my database is on R:\ and the database.yml file is the same one i
use for webrick – the good news is that i just got a basic ‘render
text’ to work in a ruby script. this is the best news, i can finally
start putting things together, Gael if you could give me any more advice
it would be great, i don’t think without your advice i would have made
it without going insane, now that it’s working it seems very easy, i
think i will get apache going now and leave some very clear instructions
for newbiews like myself who are still to make this difficult step. my
new problem:

NameError in Message#index

uninitialized constant Mysql

RAILS_ROOT: ./config/…
Application Trace | Framework Trace | Full Trace

c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.2.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:195:in
const_missing' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/mysql_adapter.rb:35:in mysql_connection’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:145:in
send' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:145:in connection_without_query_cache=’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.2/lib/active_record/query_cache.rb:54:in
connection=' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:106:in retrieve_connection’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.2/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:20:in
connection' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.2/lib/active_record/base.rb:518:in count_by_sql’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-1.13.2/lib/active_record/base.rb:511:in
count' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/pagination.rb:167:in count_collection_for_pagination’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/pagination.rb:188:in
paginator_and_collection_for' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/pagination.rb:124:in paginate’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/scaffolding.rb:101:in
list' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/scaffolding.rb:94:in index’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/base.rb:853:in
send' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/base.rb:853:in perform_action_without_filters’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/filters.rb:332:in
perform_action_without_benchmark' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:69:in perform_action_without_rescue’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:69:in
measure' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/benchmarking.rb:69:in perform_action_without_rescue’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/rescue.rb:82:in
perform_action' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/base.rb:369:in send’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/base.rb:369:in
process_without_session_management_support' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-1.11.2/lib/action_controller/session_management.rb:116:in process’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.0.0/lib/dispatcher.rb:38:in
dispatch' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/bin/scgi_service:23:in process_request’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/bin/scgi_service:21:in
synchronize' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/bin/scgi_service:21:in process_request’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:291:in
read_header' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:253:in handle_client’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:234:in
initialize' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:234:in new’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:234:in
handle_client' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:188:in listen’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:186:in
initialize' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:186:in new’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:186:in
listen' c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/lib/scgi.rb:412:in run’
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/scgi_rails-0.4.3/bin/scgi_service:61
c:/ruby/bin/scgi_service:18:in `load’
c:/ruby/bin/scgi_service:18

charl · April 5, 2006, 12:31pm

Hi Charl, I’m not sure I can help anymore, If you followed exactly Zed
instruction on his web site and it still doesn’t work and I dont know
what else you can try. I’ve never tried SCGI on Lighttpd so I cant
really tell you if there’s any gotchas…Sorry

Gael

charl · April 5, 2006, 1:45pm

Gael P. wrote:

Hi Charl, I’m not sure I can help anymore, If you followed exactly Zed
instruction on his web site and it still doesn’t work and I dont know
what else you can try. I’ve never tried SCGI on Lighttpd so I cant
really tell you if there’s any gotchas…Sorry

Gael

Gael you’ve gotten me this far, thanks for your time. I will persist, as
i’m so close now, at least i’ve got a script running, i just need to
keep on trying.