Ruby on Rails with Nginx on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy)

Install Required Packages 

First, make sure you have the universe repository enabled in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Your file should resemble the following:

File excerpt: /etc/apt/sources.list

## main & restricted repositories
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted universe

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted universe

If you added universe to the the items in your list, you'll need to update your repository database:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Issue the following command to install packages required for Ruby on Rails.

apt-get install wget build-essential ruby1.8 ruby1.8-dev irb1.8 rdoc1.8 zlib1g-dev libopenssl-ruby1.8 libopenssl-ruby libzlib-ruby libssl-dev

Create symbolic links to the installed version of Ruby:

ln -s /usr/bin/ruby1.8 /usr/bin/ruby
ln -s /usr/bin/irb1.8 /usr/bin/irb

Now we'll need to install gems. The version in the Ubuntu 8.04 repositories is quite outdated, and does not work correctly. Issue the following commands to download and install a fresh version. You may wish to check the RubyForge files page for the most recent version.

wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/69365/rubygems-1.3.6.tgz
tar -xvf rubygems-1.3.6.tgz
cd rubygems-1.3.6
ruby setup.rb
ln -s /usr/bin/gem1.8 /usr/bin/gem

Update rubygems:

gem update --system

Install the rake, rack, and fastthread gems:

gem install rake
gem install rack
gem install fastthread --no-rdoc --no-ri

Install Passenger and Nginx 

Proceed to the Phusion Passenger site and locate the link for the current source code tarball. Download it as follows (substitute the link for the current version):

cd /root
wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/69546/passenger-2.2.11.tar.gz
cd /opt
tar xzvf ~/passenger-2.2.11.tar.gz

Run the Phusion Passenger installer for Nginx:

cd passenger-2.2.11/bin
./passenger-install-nginx-module

You'll be greeted by the Phusion Passenger Nginx installer program. Press "Enter" to continue with the installation.

When prompted for the Nginx installation method, we recommend you choose "1" to allow the installer to automatically download, compile, and install Nginx for you. Unless you have specific needs that would necessitate passing custom options to Nginx at compile time, this is the safest way to proceed.

Please do not remove the Passenger files from opt after the install. They need to stay in place or your install will not function correctly.

Set up an Init Script for Nginx 

Nginx is now installed in /opt/nginx, but we need a way of controlling it. Create a file called /etc/init.d/nginx and copy the following script contents into it:

File: /etc/init.d/nginx

#! /bin/sh

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          nginx
# Required-Start:    $all
# Required-Stop:     $all
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: starts the nginx web server
# Description:       starts nginx using start-stop-daemon
### END INIT INFO

PATH=/opt/nginx/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DAEMON=/opt/nginx/sbin/nginx
NAME=nginx
DESC=nginx

test -x $DAEMON || exit 0

# Include nginx defaults if available
if [ -f /etc/default/nginx ] ; then
        . /etc/default/nginx
fi

set -e

case "$1" in
  start)
        echo -n "Starting $DESC: "
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid \
                --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS
        echo "$NAME."
        ;;
  stop)
        echo -n "Stopping $DESC: "
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid \
                --exec $DAEMON
        echo "$NAME."
        ;;
  restart|force-reload)
        echo -n "Restarting $DESC: "
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile \
                /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid --exec $DAEMON
        sleep 1
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile \
                /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS
        echo "$NAME."
        ;;
  reload)
          echo -n "Reloading $DESC configuration: "
          start-stop-daemon --stop --signal HUP --quiet --pidfile     /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid \
              --exec $DAEMON
          echo "$NAME."
          ;;
      *)
            N=/etc/init.d/$NAME
            echo "Usage: $N {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload}" >&2
            exit 1
            ;;
    esac

    exit 0

Run the following commands to set system startup links:

chmod +x /etc/init.d/nginx
/usr/sbin/update-rc.d -f nginx defaults

You can now start, stop, and restart Nginx just like any other server daemon. For example, to start the server, issue the following command:

/etc/init.d/nginx start

The configuration file for Nginx is located at /opt/nginx/conf/nginx.conf. This is the file you'll need to edit to add support for your Rails applications. A default server is already configured in this file, and it also contains examples for alternate virtual host and SSL configurations.

Install MySQL Support (optional) 

If your application uses MySQL, install the database server by following our MySQL on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy) guide. Once it's installed and configured properly, issue the following commands:

apt-get install libmysqlclient15-dev libmysql-ruby

gem install mysql --no-rdoc --no-ri -- --with-mysql-dir=/usr/bin \
    --with-mysql-lib=/usr/lib/mysql --with-mysql-include=/usr/include/mysql

More Information 

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

• Ruby on Rails Home Page
• Ruby on Rails Documentation
• Nginx Home Page
• Nginx Documentation
• Nginx Configuration

License 

This guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please feel free to redistribute unmodified copies of it as long as attribution is provided, preferably via a link to this page.