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Apache - Rails Checklist

Deployment is an important element for any Rails application. While you iron out all the logical kinks in your application running Webrick, suprises may await you when you deploy. Have you encountered the “Application Error” screen when an application is deployed?

I decided to use my local Ubuntu box as a trial run for the complete deployment setup. That means using the exact same configuration my hosting provider uses. We are using Apache-fcgi for now and hoping to migrate soon to Apache-mongrel.

Here is a checklist of items to check as you set your environment. YMMV — and hoping that you do not run into these. The documentation on this is very sparse and for every question there will be different answers ranging from a band-aid to OS reinstall. So read through the post before you set off on the venture and make sure you have all the links handy.

This assumes you have installed apache, tested the basic page and can see the home public_html for a user

* Enable rewrite

sudo a2enmod rewrite

* fcgi module for apache

sudo apt-get install libfcgi-ruby1.8 libapache2-mod-fastcgi
  	sudo a2enmod fastcgi

* fcgi gem for rails

sudo gem install fcgi

* Use either a virtual host or a alias to access the rails app
- Make sure to use RewriteBase in your .htaccess only if using alias
- add the host with sudo a2ensite
- if you use virtual site, add 127.0.0.1 localhost, to /etc/hosts

* Fix permissions for rails directories so apache can use them
Ref: http://bryan.e4industries.com/?p=6

sudo chgrp -R www-data railsapp
  	chmod 0775 db
  	chmod 0777 log
  	chmod 0775 public
  	chmod 0666 log/*.log

* Edit railsapp/public/.htaccess to enable fastcgi

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ dispatch.fcgi [QSA,L]

* Check dispatch.fcgi and ensure the #!path in the first line points to the valid ruby source
* It is /usr/local/bin/ruby by default, Ubuntu has ruby in /usr/bin/ruby

References:

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 7:24 pm and is filed under rails, ubuntu, apache. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Apache - Rails Checklist”

  1. Jason Says:
    February 10th, 2007 at 1:27 pm

    Very nice writeup. I was struggling with the exact same problem This helped me a lot.

  2. Jenna Says:
    April 12th, 2007 at 2:53 pm

    Thanks. This is exactly what I was looking for. Worked exactly as you have written up.

  3. Gemma Atkinson Says:
    June 12th, 2007 at 7:06 pm

    I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….

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