Nginx Installation Notes

Nginx is a free, open-source, high-performance HTTP server and reverse proxy, as well as an IMAP/POP3 proxy server. Unlike traditional servers, Nginx doesn’t rely on threads to handle requests. Instead it uses a much more scalable event-driven (asynchronous) architecture. This architecture uses small, but more importantly, predictable amounts of memory under load.

The PHP-FPM (FastCGI Process Manager) is usually used to allow Nginx to process PHP files. Nowadays, PHP-FPM is bundled with any Unix PHP distribution. Phalcon + Nginx + PHP-FPM provides a powerful set of tools that offer maximum performance for your PHP applications.

Configuring Nginx for Phalcon

The following are potential configurations you can use to setup nginx with Phalcon:

Basic configuration

Using $_GET[‘_url’] as source of URIs:

  1. server {
  3.     listen   80;
  4.     server_name localhost.dev;
  6.     index index.php index.html index.htm;
  7.     set $root_path '/var/www/phalcon/public';
  8.     root $root_path;
  10.     try_files $uri $uri/ @rewrite;
  12.     location @rewrite {
  13.         rewrite ^/(.*)$ /index.php?_url=/$1;
  14.     }
  16.     location ~ \.php {
  17.         fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
  18.         fastcgi_index /index.php;
  20.         include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
  22.         fastcgi_split_path_info       ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
  23.         fastcgi_param PATH_INFO       $fastcgi_path_info;
  24.         fastcgi_param PATH_TRANSLATED $document_root$fastcgi_path_info;
  25.         fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
  26.     }
  28.     location ~* ^/(css|img|js|flv|swf|download)/(.+)$ {
  29.         root $root_path;
  30.     }
  32.     location ~ /\.ht {
  33.         deny all;
  34.     }
  35. }

Using $_SERVER[‘REQUEST_URI’] as source of URIs:

  1. server {
  3.     listen   80;
  4.     server_name localhost.dev;
  6.     index index.php index.html index.htm;
  7.     set $root_path '/var/www/phalcon/public';
  8.     root $root_path;
  10.     location / {
  11.         try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php;
  12.     }
  14.     location ~ \.php$ {
  15.             try_files $uri =404;
  16.             fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
  17.             fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
  18.             fastcgi_index index.php;
  19.             fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
  20.             include fastcgi_params;
  21.     }
  23.     location ~* ^/(css|img|js|flv|swf|download)/(.+)$ {
  24.         root $root_path;
  25.     }
  27.     location ~ /\.ht {
  28.         deny all;
  29.     }
  30. }

Dedicated Instance

  1. server {
  2.     listen       80;
  3.     server_name  localhost;
  5.     charset      utf-8;
  7.     #access_log  /var/log/nginx/host.access.log  main;
  9.     set $root_path '/srv/www/htdocs/phalcon-website/public';
  11.     location / {
  12.         root   $root_path;
  13.         index  index.php index.html index.htm;
  15.         # if file exists return it right away
  16.         if (-f $request_filename) {
  17.             break;
  18.         }
  20.         # otherwise rewrite it
  21.         if (!-e $request_filename) {
  22.             rewrite ^(.+)$ /index.php?_url=/$1 last;
  23.             break;
  24.         }
  25.     }
  27.     location ~ \.php {
  28.         # try_files    $uri =404;
  30.         fastcgi_index  /index.php;
  31.         fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
  33.         include fastcgi_params;
  34.         fastcgi_split_path_info       ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
  35.         fastcgi_param PATH_INFO       $fastcgi_path_info;
  36.         fastcgi_param PATH_TRANSLATED $document_root$fastcgi_path_info;
  37.         fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
  38.     }
  40.     location ~* ^/(css|img|js|flv|swf|download)/(.+)$ {
  41.         root $root_path;
  42.     }
  43. }

Configuration by Host

And this second configuration allow you to have different configurations by host:

  1. server {
  2.     listen      80;
  3.     server_name localhost;
  4.     set         $root_path '/var/www/$host/public';
  5.     root        $root_path;
  7.     access_log  /var/log/nginx/$host-access.log;
  8.     error_log   /var/log/nginx/$host-error.log error;
  10.     index index.php index.html index.htm;
  12.     try_files $uri $uri/ @rewrite;
  14.     location @rewrite {
  15.         rewrite ^/(.*)$ /index.php?_url=/$1;
  16.     }
  18.     location ~ \.php {
  19.         # try_files    $uri =404;
  21.         fastcgi_index  /index.php;
  22.         fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
  24.         include fastcgi_params;
  25.         fastcgi_split_path_info       ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
  26.         fastcgi_param PATH_INFO       $fastcgi_path_info;
  27.         fastcgi_param PATH_TRANSLATED $document_root$fastcgi_path_info;
  28.         fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
  29.     }
  31.     location ~* ^/(css|img|js|flv|swf|download)/(.+)$ {
  32.         root $root_path;
  33.     }
  35.     location ~ /\.ht {
  36.         deny all;
  37.     }
  38. }