Phusion Passenger users guide
=============================

image:images/phusion_banner.png[link="http://www.phusion.nl/"]

Phusion Passenger is an Apache module, which makes deploying Ruby and Ruby on
Rails applications on Apache a breeze. It follows the usual Ruby on Rails
conventions, such as "Don't-Repeat-Yourself" and ease of setup, while at the
same time providing enough flexibility.

This users guide will teach you:

- How to install Phusion Passenger.
- How to configure Phusion Passenger.
- How to deploy a Ruby on Rails application.
- How to deploy a link:http://rack.rubyforge.org/[Rack]-based Ruby application.
- How to solve common problems.

This guide assumes that the reader is somewhat familiar with Apache and with
using the commandline.


== Support information ==

=== Supported operating systems ===

Phusion Passenger works on any POSIX-compliant operating system. In other
words: practically any operating system on earth, except Microsoft Windows.

Phusion Passenger is confirmed on a large number of operating systems and Linux
distributions, including, but not limited to, Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS/Fedora/RHEL,
Gentoo, Mac OS X, FreeBSD and Solaris. Both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms are supported.

The only POSIX-compliant operating system on which Phusion Passenger for Apache is
known not to work at this time, is OpenBSD. Please use Phusion Passenger for Nginx
instead.

Please
link:http://code.google.com/p/phusion-passenger/issues/list[report a bug]
or
link:http://groups.google.com/group/phusion-passenger[join our discussion forum]
if it doesn't work on your POSIX-compliant operating system.

=== Where to get support ===

* link:http://code.google.com/p/phusion-passenger/issues/list[Issue tracker] - report
  bugs here.
* link:http://groups.google.com/group/phusion-passenger[Discussion forum] - post a
  message here if you're experiencing problems.


== Installing, upgrading and uninstalling Phusion Passenger ==

=== Generic installation instructions ===

[[install_passenger]]
==== Overview of installation methods ====

There are three ways to install Phusion Passenger:

1. By installing the Phusion Passenger gem, as instructed on the
   link:http://www.modrails.com/install.html[``Install'' page on the Phusion
   Passenger website].
2. By downloading the source tarball from the Phusion Passenger website
   ('passenger-x.x.x.tar.gz').
3. By installing a native Linux package (e.g. Debian package).

The following sections will explain each installation method. Please read the
section for the installation method that you prefer. In our opinion, installing
the gem or the native package is easiest. For these two installation methods,
Phusion Passenger provides an easy-to-use installer.

==== Preparation (gem and source tarball only)
If you want to install Phusion Passenger via the gem or the source tarball,
then some preparations might be required. You can skip this subsection if
you're installing Phusion Passenger via a native Linux package, because no
compilation is necessary.

===== Switching to a root command prompt =====

Before installing, you will probably need to switch to the `root` user first.
When you install Phusion Passenger via a gem or a source tarball, some Phusion
Passenger files have to be compiled, which requires write access to the
directory in which the Phusion Passenger files are located. On Unix systems,
the root user is the user who has write access to the entire system. So unless
you know that your normal user account has write access to the Phusion Passenger
directory, you should switch to root before installing Phusion Passenger.

You can switch to root by typing the following command:

-------------------------
sudo -s
-------------------------

This will open a command prompt as the root user, from which you can proceed
with installing Phusion Passenger.

If your system does not have 'sudo' installed, please type the following command instead, which should do the same thing:

-------------------------
su
-------------------------

[[specifying_correct_apache_install]]
===== Specifying the correct Apache installation =====

The Phusion Passenger installer will attempt to automatically detect Apache,
and compile Phusion Passenger against that Apache version. It does this by
looking for the `apxs` or `apxs2` command in the PATH environment variable.
Apxs is an integral part of any Apache installation.

However, some systems have multiple Apache installations. This is likely
the case on MacOS X: the OS ships with Apache, but users tend to install
another Apache version seperately, e.g. via MacPorts. If your system has
multiple Apache installations, then you will need to tell the Phusion Passenger
installer which one to use. It is very important that you specify the
correct Apache installation, because if you load Phusion Passenger in an
Apache installation that it wasn't compiled against, then it will likely
crash.

On yet other systems, Apache is installed in a non-standard location,
preventing the Phusion Passenger installer from detecting Apache. This
is most likely the case on systems on which Apache was installed by hand
from source, i.e. as opposed to installed through the system's native
package manager. If this is the case, then you will also have to tell
the installer where it can find Apache.

To do so, set the `APXS2` environment variable to the full path of the
correct `apxs` or `apxs2` command. Suppose that you want to use the Apache
installation in '/opt/apache2'. Then, assuming that the corresponding
`apxs` program's path is '/opt/apache2/bin/apxs', type:

----------------------------------
export APXS2=/opt/apache2/bin/apxs
----------------------------------

NOTE: On some systems, the `apxs` program might be called `apxs2`, and it might
be located in the `sbin` folder instead of the `bin` folder.

.Environment variables and 'sudo'
NOTE: By default, the 'sudo' command will erase any environment variables that it
doesn't recognize, prior to executing the given command. So if you set APXS2 as a
normal user, then run `sudo passenger-install-apache2-module` (which is the command
for the Phusion Passenger installer), then the installer will not receive the
environment variable value that you set. To solve this problem, please become root
prior to setting any environment variables, as described in the previous subsection.

[[specifying_ruby_installation]]
===== Specifying the correct Ruby installation =====

If your system has multiple Ruby installations -- which is likely the case on
MacOS X, or if you've also installed
link:http://www.rubyenterpriseedition.com[Ruby Enterprise Edition] -- then you
will need to tell the operating system which Ruby installation to use, prior to
running the Phusion Passenger installer. If you only have one Ruby installation
(the case on most Linux systems), then you can skip this section because Phusion
Passenger will automatically detect it.

To specify a Ruby installation, prepend your Ruby installation's `bin`
directory to the `PATH` environment variable. For example, if you have the
following Ruby installations:

- /usr/bin/ruby
- /opt/myruby/bin/ruby

and you want to use the latter, then type:

----------------------------------
export PATH=/opt/myruby/bin:$PATH
----------------------------------


==== Installing via the gem ====

Please install the gem and then run the Phusion Passenger installer, by typing the
following commands:
------------------------------------------------------
gem install passenger-x.x.x.gem
passenger-install-apache2-module
------------------------------------------------------
Please follow the instructions given by the installer.


==== Installing via the source tarball ====

Extract the tarball to whatever location you prefer. *The Phusion Passenger files
are to reside in that location permanently.* For example, if you would like
Phusion Passenger to reside in `/opt/passenger-x.x.x`:
------------------------------------------------------
cd /opt
tar xzvf ~/YourDownloadsFolder/passenger-x.x.x.tar.gz
------------------------------------------------------

Next, run the included installer:
------------------------------------------------------
/opt/passenger-x.x.x/bin/passenger-install-apache2-module
------------------------------------------------------
Please follow the instructions given by the installer.

IMPORTANT: Please do not remove the 'passenger-x.x.x' folder after
installation. Furthermore, the 'passenger-x.x.x' folder must be accessible by Apache.


==== Installing via a native Linux package ====

John Leach from Brightbox has kindly provided an Ubuntu Hardy package for Phusion Passenger. The package is available from the link:http://apt.brightbox.net[Brightbox repository].

Please install the native Linux package, e.g.:
------------------------------------------------------
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://apt.brightbox.net hardy main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brightbox.list'
sudo sh -c 'wget -q -O - http://apt.brightbox.net/release.asc | apt-key add -'
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-passenger
------------------------------------------------------

==== What does the installer do? ====

Although we call it an ``installer'', it doesn't actually install anything.
The installer checks whether all required dependencies are installed,
compiles Phusion Passenger for you, and tells you how to modify the Apache
configuration file, but it doesn't copy any files around.

`passenger-install-apache2-module` is actually just a user-friendly frontend
around the command `rake apache2`, which performs the actual compilation of
Phusion Passenger.


=== Operating system-specific instructions and information ===

==== MacOS X ====

Ben Ruebenstein has written an excellent
link:http://benr75.com/articles/2008/04/12/setup-mod_rails-phusion-mac-os-x-leopard[tutorial
on installing Phusion Passenger on OS X].

==== Ubuntu Linux ====

Ben Hughes has written an link:http://www.railsgarden.com/2008/04/12/configurating-passenger-mod_rails-on-slicehost-with-ubuntu-710/[article on installing Phusion Passenger on Ubuntu].

==== OpenSolaris ====

J Aaron Farr has written a link:http://cubiclemuses.com/cm/articles/2009/04/09/rails-passenger-open-solaris-ec2/[guide]
about setting up Ruby on Rails and Phusion Passenger on OpenSolaris and EC2.


=== Upgrading or downgrading Phusion Passenger ===

==== Via a gem or a source tarball ====

To ugrade or downgrade Phusion Passenger via the gem or the source tarball, install the newer
or older version as you normally would; that is, install the gem or unpack the tarball, and
run `passenger-install-apache2-module`. Eventually `passenger-install-apache2-module` will tell
you to copy & paste some settings into the Apache configuration file; something that looks along
the lines of:

-----------------------------------
LoadModule passenger_module ...
PassengerRoot ...
PassengerRuby ...
-----------------------------------

Because you already had Phusion Passenger installed, you already had similar settings
in your Apache configuration file, just with different values. *Replace* the old settings with
the new ones that the installer outputs. It is important that the old settings are removed,
otherwise Phusion Passenger may malfunction.

When you're done, restart Apache.

==== Via a native Linux package

There are no special instructions required to upgrade or downgrade Phusion Passenger
via a native Linux package.

=== Unloading (disabling) Phusion Passenger from Apache without uninstalling it ===

You can temporarily unload (disable) Phusion Passenger from Apache, without
uninstalling the Phusion Passenger files, so that Apache behaves as if Phusion
Passenger was never installed in the first place. This might be useful to you if,
for example, you seem to be experiencing a problem caused by Phusion Passenger,
but you want to make sure whether that's actually the case, without having
to through the hassle of uninstalling Phusion Passenger completely. When disabled,
Phusion Passenger will not occupy any memory or CPU or otherwise interfere with
Apache.

To unload Phusion Passenger from Apache, edit your Apache configuration file(s)
and comment out:

- all Phusion Passenger configuration directives.
- the 'LoadModule passenger_module' directive.

For example, if your configuration file looks like this...

-----------------------------------
Listen *:80
NameVirtualHosts *:80
....

LoadModule passenger_module /somewhere/passenger-x.x.x/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so

PassengerRuby /usr/bin/ruby
PassengerRoot /somewhere/passenger/x.x.x
PassengerMaxPoolSize 10

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.foo.com
    DocumentRoot /webapps/foo/public
    RailsBaseURI /rails
</VirtualHost>
-----------------------------------

...then comment out the relevant directives, so that it looks like this:

-----------------------------------
Listen *:80
NameVirtualHosts *:80
....

# LoadModule passenger_module /somewhere/passenger-x.x.x/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so

# PassengerRuby /usr/bin/ruby
# PassengerRoot /somewhere/passenger/x.x.x
# PassengerMaxPoolSize 10

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.foo.com
    DocumentRoot /webapps/foo/public
    # RailsBaseURI /rails
</VirtualHost>
-----------------------------------

After you've done this, save the file and restart Apache.

=== Uninstalling Phusion Passenger ===

To uninstall Phusion Passenger, please first remove all Phusion Passenger
configuration directives from your Apache configuration file(s). After you've
done this, you need to remove the Phusion Passenger files.

- If you installed Phusion Passenger via a gem, then type `gem uninstall passenger`.
  You might have to run this as root.
- If you installed Phusion Passenger via a source tarball, then remove the directory
  in which you placed the extracted Phusion Passenger files. This directory is the
  same as the one pointed to the by 'PassengerRoot' configuration directive.
- If you installed Phusion Passenger via a Debian package, then remove type
  `sudo apt-get remove libapache2-mod-passenger`.


== Deploying a Ruby on Rails application ==

Suppose you have a Ruby on Rails application in '/webapps/mycook', and you own
the domain 'www.mycook.com'. You can either deploy your application to the
virtual host's root (i.e. the application will be accessible from the root URL,
'http://www.mycook.com/'), or in a sub URI (i.e. the application will be
accessible from a sub URL, such as 'http://www.mycook.com/railsapplication').

NOTE: The default `RAILS_ENV` environment in which deployed Rails applications
are run, is ``production''. You can change this by changing the
<<rails_env,'RailsEnv'>> configuration option.

=== Deploying to a virtual host's root ===

Add a virtual host entry to your Apache configuration file. Make sure that the
following conditions are met:

- The virtual host's document root must point to your Ruby on Rails application's
  'public' folder.
- The Apache per-directory permissions must allow access to this folder.
- MultiViews must be disabled for this folder.

For example:
-------------------------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.mycook.com
    DocumentRoot /webapps/mycook/public
    <Directory /webapps/mycook/public>
        Allow from all
        Options -MultiViews
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>
-------------------------------------------

You may also need to tweak your file/folder permissions. Make sure that the
following folders are readable and executable by Apache:

 * this 'public' folder.
 * the application's 'config' folder.
 * all parent folders. That is, /webapps/mycook and /webapps must also be readable and executable by Apache.

Then restart Apache. The application has now been deployed.

[[deploying_rails_to_sub_uri]]
=== Deploying to a sub URI ===

Suppose that you already have a virtual host:

-------------------------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.phusion.nl
    DocumentRoot /websites/phusion
    <Directory /websites/phusion>
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>
-------------------------------------------

And you want your Ruby on Rails application to be accessible from the URL
'http://www.phusion.nl/rails'.

To do this, make a symlink in the virtual host's document root, and have it
point to your Ruby on Rails application's 'public' folder. For example:
-------------------------------------------
ln -s /webapps/mycook/public /websites/phusion/rails
-------------------------------------------

Next, add a <<RailsBaseURI,RailsBaseURI>> option to the virtual host configuration,
and also make sure that:

- The Apache per-directory permissions allow access to this folder.
- MultiViews is disabled for this folder.

For example:
-------------------------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.phusion.nl
    DocumentRoot /websites/phusion
    <Directory /websites/phusion>
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
    
    RailsBaseURI /rails                   # <-- These lines have
    <Directory /websites/phusion/rails>   # <-- been added.
        Options -MultiViews               # <--
    </Directory>                          # <--
</VirtualHost>
-------------------------------------------
Then restart Apache. The application has now been deployed.

NOTE: If you're deploying to a sub-URI then please make sure that your view
templates correctly handles references to sub-URI static assets! Otherwise
you may find broken links to images, CSS files, JavaScripts, etc. Please read
<<sub_uri_deployment_uri_fix,How to fix broken images/CSS/JavaScript URIs in sub-URI deployments>>
for more information.

[TIP]
======================================
You can deploy multiple Rails applications under a virtual host, by specifying
<<RailsBaseURI,RailsBaseURI>> multiple times. For example:
---------------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ....
    RailsBaseURI /app1
    RailsBaseURI /app2
    RailsBaseURI /app3
</VirtualHost>
---------------------------------
======================================

=== Redeploying (restarting the Ruby on Rails application) ===

Deploying a new version of a Ruby on Rails application is as simple as
re-uploading the application files, and restarting the application.

There are two ways to restart the application:

1. By restarting Apache.
2. By creating or modifying the file 'tmp/restart.txt' in the Rails
   application's <<application_root,root folder>>. Phusion Passenger will
   automatically restart the application during the next request.

For example, to restart our example MyCook application, we type this in the
command line:
-------------------------------------------
touch /webapps/mycook/tmp/restart.txt
-------------------------------------------

Please note that, unlike earlier versions of Phusion Passenger, 'restart.txt'
is not automatically deleted. Phusion Passenger checks whether the timestamp
of this file has changed in order to determine whether the application should
be restarted.

=== Migrations ===

Phusion Passenger is not related to Ruby on Rails migrations in any way. To
run migrations on your deployment server, please login to your deployment
server (e.g. with 'ssh') and type `rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production` in
a shell console, just like one would normally run migrations.

=== Capistrano integration ===

See <<capistrano,Capistrano recipe>>.


== Deploying a Rack-based Ruby application ==

Phusion Passenger supports arbitrary Ruby web applications that follow the
link:http://rack.rubyforge.org/[Rack] interface.

Phusion Passenger assumes that Rack application directories have a certain layout.
Suppose that you have a Rack application in '/webapps/rackapp'. Then that
folder must contain at least three entries:

- 'config.ru', a Rackup file for starting the Rack application. This file must contain
  the complete logic for initializing the application.
- 'public/', a folder containing public static web assets, like images and stylesheets.
- 'tmp/', used for 'restart.txt' (our application restart mechanism). This will
  be explained in a following subsection.

So '/webapps/rackapp' must, at minimum, look like this:
----------------------
/webapps/rackapp
  |
  +-- config.ru
  |
  +-- public/
  |
  +-- tmp/
----------------------

Suppose you own the domain 'www.rackapp.com'. You can either deploy your application
to the virtual host's root (i.e. the application will be accessible from the root URL,
'http://www.rackapp.com/'), or in a sub URI (i.e. the application will be
accessible from a sub URL, such as 'http://www.rackapp.com/rackapp').

NOTE: The default `RACK_ENV` environment in which deployed Rack applications
are run, is ``production''. You can change this by changing the
<<rack_env,'RackEnv'>> configuration option.

=== Tutorial/example: writing and deploying a Hello World Rack application ===

First we create a Phusion Passenger-compliant Rack directory structure:

-------------------------------------------
$ mkdir /webapps/rack_example
$ mkdir /webapps/rack_example/public
$ mkdir /webapps/rack_example/tmp
-------------------------------------------

Next, we write a minimal "hello world" Rack application:

-------------------------------------------
$ cd /webapps/rack_example
$ some_awesome_editor config.ru
...type in some source code...
$ cat config.ru
app = proc do |env|
    [200, { "Content-Type" => "text/html" }, ["hello <b>world</b>"]]
end
run app
-------------------------------------------

Finally, we deploy it by adding the following configuration options to
the Apache configuration file:

-------------------------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.rackexample.com
    DocumentRoot /webapps/rack_example/public
    <Directory /webapps/rack_example/public>
        Allow from all
        Options -MultiViews
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>
-------------------------------------------

And we're done! After an Apache restart, the above Rack application will be available
under the URL 'http://www.rackexample.com/'.

=== Deploying to a virtual host's root ===

Add a virtual host entry to your Apache configuration file. Make sure that the
following conditions are met:

- The virtual host's document root must point to your Rack application's
  'public' folder.
- The Apache per-directory permissions must allow access to this folder.
- MultiViews must be disabled for this folder.

For example:
-------------------------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.rackapp.com
    DocumentRoot /webapps/rackapp/public
    <Directory /webapps/rackapp/public>
        Allow from all
        Options -MultiViews
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>
-------------------------------------------

You may also need to tweak your file/folder permissions. Make sure that the
following folders are readable and executable by Apache:

 * this 'public' folder.
 * the application's 'config' folder.
 * all parent folders. That is, /webapps/rackapp and /webapps must also be readable and executable by Apache.

Then restart Apache. The application has now been deployed.

[[deploying_rack_to_sub_uri]]
=== Deploying to a sub URI ===

Suppose that you already have a virtual host:

-------------------------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.phusion.nl
    DocumentRoot /websites/phusion
    <Directory /websites/phusion>
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>
-------------------------------------------

And you want your Rack application to be accessible from the URL
'http://www.phusion.nl/rack'.

To do this, make a symlink in the virtual host's document root, and have it
point to your Rack application's 'public' folder. For example:
-------------------------------------------
ln -s /webapps/rackapp/public /websites/phusion/rack
-------------------------------------------

Next, add a <<RackBaseURI,RackBaseURI>> option to the virtual host configuration,
and also make sure that:

- The Apache per-directory permissions allow access to this folder.
- MultiViews is disabled for this folder.

For example:
-------------------------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.phusion.nl
    DocumentRoot /websites/phusion
    <Directory /websites/phusion>
        Allow from all
    </Directory>

    RackBaseURI /rails                    # <-- These lines have
    <Directory /websites/phusion/rails>   # <-- been added.
        Options -MultiViews               # <--
    </Directory>                          # <--
</VirtualHost>
-------------------------------------------
Then restart Apache. The application has now been deployed.

[TIP]
======================================
You can deploy multiple Rack applications under a virtual host, by specifying
<<RackBaseURI,RackBaseURI>> multiple times. For example:
---------------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ....
    RackBaseURI /app1
    RackBaseURI /app2
    RackBaseURI /app3
</VirtualHost>
---------------------------------
======================================

=== Redeploying (restarting the Rack application) ===

Deploying a new version of a Rack application is as simple as
re-uploading the application files, and restarting the application.

There are two ways to restart the application:

1. By restarting Apache.
2. By creating or modifying the file 'tmp/restart.txt' in the Rack
   application's <<application_root,root folder>>. Phusion Passenger will
   automatically restart the application.

For example, to restart our example application, we type this in the
command line:
-------------------------------------------
touch /webapps/rackapp/tmp/restart.txt
-------------------------------------------

=== Rackup specifications for various web frameworks ===
include::users_guide_snippets/rackup_specifications.txt[]


== Configuring Phusion Passenger ==

After installation, Phusion Passenger does not need any further configurations.
Nevertheless, the system administrator may be interested in changing
Phusion Passenger's behavior. Phusion Passenger's Apache module supports the
following configuration options:

=== PassengerRoot <directory> ===
The location to the Phusion Passenger root directory. This configuration option
is essential to Phusion Passenger, and allows Phusion Passenger to locate its own
data files. The correct value is given by the installer.

If you've moved Phusion Passenger to a different directory then you need to update
this option as well. Please read
<<moving_phusion_passenger,Moving Phusion Passenger to a different directory>> for more information.

This required option may only occur once, in the global server configuration.

[[PassengerRuby]]
=== PassengerRuby <filename> ===
This option allows one to specify the Ruby interpreter to use.

This option may only occur once, in the global server configuration.
The default is 'ruby'.

[[PassengerAppRoot]]
=== PassengerAppRoot <path/to/root> ===
By default, Phusion Passenger assumes that the application's root directory
is the parent directory of the 'public' directory. This option allows one to
specify the application's root independently from the DocumentRoot, which
is useful if the 'public' directory lives in a non-standard place.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess', if `AllowOverride Options` is on.

In each place, it may be specified at most once.

Example:

-----------------------------
<VirtualHost test.host>
    DocumentRoot /var/rails/zena/sites/example.com/public
    PassengerAppRoot /var/rails/zena   # <-- normally Phusion Passenger would
                                       #     have assumed that the application
                                       #     root is "/var/rails/zena/sites/example.com"
</VirtualHost>
-----------------------------

[[PassengerSpawnMethod]]
=== PassengerSpawnMethod <string> ===
[TIP]
."What spawn method should I use?"
=========================================================
This subsection attempts to describe spawn methods, but it's okay if you don't (want to)
understand it, as it's mostly a technical detail. You can basically follow this rule of thumb:

************************************************
If your application works on Mongrel, but not on Phusion Passenger, then set
`PassengerSpawnMethod` to 'conservative'. Otherwise, leave it at 'smart-lv2' (the default).
************************************************

However, we do recommend you to try to understand it. The 'smart' and 'smart-lv2' spawn
methods bring many benefits.
=========================================================

include::users_guide_snippets/passenger_spawn_method.txt[]

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.

In each place, it may be specified at most once. The default value is 'smart-lv2'.

[[PassengerUseGlobalQueue]]
=== PassengerUseGlobalQueue <on|off> ===
Turns the use of global queuing on or off.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.

In each place, it may be specified at most once. The default value is 'on'.

'This feature is sponsored by http://www.37signals.com/[37signals].'

include::users_guide_snippets/global_queueing_explained.txt[]


=== PassengerEnabled <on|off> ===
You can set this option to 'off' to completely disable Phusion Passenger for
a certain location. This is useful if, for example, you want to integrate a PHP
application into the same virtual host as a Rails application.

Suppose that you have a Rails application in '/apps/foo'. Suppose that you've
dropped Wordpress -- a blogging application written in PHP -- in
'/apps/foo/public/wordpress'. You can then configure Phusion Passenger as
follows:

------------------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.foo.com
    DocumentRoot /apps/foo/public
    <Directory /apps/foo/public/wordpress>
        PassengerEnabled off
        AllowOverride all      # <-- Makes Wordpress's .htaccess file work.
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>
------------------------------------

This way, Phusion Passenger will not interfere with Wordpress.

'PassengerEnabled' may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess'.

In each place, it may be specified at most once. The default value is 'on'.

[[PassengerTempDir]]
=== PassengerTempDir <directory> ===
Specifies the directory that Phusion Passenger should use for storing temporary
files. This includes things such as Unix socket files, buffered file uploads
(see also <<PassengerUploadBufferDir,PassengerUploadBufferDir>>), etc.

This option may be specified once, in the global server configuration. The
default temp directory that Phusion Passenger uses is '/tmp'.

This option is especially useful if Apache is not allowed to write to /tmp
(which is the case on some systems with strict SELinux policies) or if the
partition that /tmp lives on doesn't have enough disk space.

.Command line tools
Some Phusion Passenger command line administration tools, such as
`passenger-status`, must know what Phusion Passenger's temp directory is
in order to function properly. You can pass the directory through the
`PASSENGER_TMPDIR` environment variable, or the `TMPDIR` environment variable
(the former will be used if both are specified).

For example, if you set 'PassengerTempDir' to '/my_temp_dir', then invoke
`passenger-status` after you've set the `PASSENGER_TMPDIR` or `TMPDIR`
environment variable, like this:

----------------------------------------------------------
export PASSENGER_TMPDIR=/my_temp-dir
sudo -E passenger-status
# The -E option tells 'sudo' to preserve environment variables.
----------------------------------------------------------

[[PassengerUploadBufferDir]]
=== PassengerUploadBufferDir <directory> ===
Phusion Passenger buffers large file uploads to disk in order prevent slow file
uploads from blocking web applications. By default, a subdirectory in the
system's temporary files directory (or a subdirectory in the directory specified
in <<PassengerTempDir,PassengerTempDir>>, if set) is automatically created for
storing these buffered file uploads.

This configuration directive allows you to specify a different directory for storing
buffered file uploads. If you've specified such a directory (as opposed to using
Phusion Passenger's default) then you *must* ensure that this directory exists.

This configuration directive is also useful if you're using apache2-mpm-itk.
The buffered file upload directory that Phusion Passenger creates by default has
very strict permissions: it can only be accessed by the Apache worker processes.
However, Phusion Passenger assumes that all Apache worker processes are running
as the same user. apache2-mpm-itk breaks this assumption by running multiple
Apache worker processes as different users. So if you're using apace2-mpm-itk,
you should set this option to a directory that is writable by all Apache worker
processes, such as '/tmp'.

You may specify 'PassengerUploadBufferDir' in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess', if `AllowOverrides Options` is enabled.

In each place, it may be specified at most once.

=== PassengerRestartDir <directory> ===
As described in the deployment chapters of this document, Phusion Passenger
checks the file 'tmp/restart.txt' in the applications'
<<application_root,root directory>> for restarting applications. Sometimes it
may be desirable for Phusion Passenger to look in a different directory instead,
for example for security reasons (see below). This option allows you to
customize the directory in which 'restart.txt' is searched for.

You may specify 'PassengerRestartDir' in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess', if `AllowOverrides Options` is enabled.

In each place, it may be specified at most once.

You can either set it to an absolute directory, or to a directory relative to
the <<application_root,application root>>. Examples:

-----------------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.foo.com
    # Phusion Passenger will check for /apps/foo/public/tmp/restart.txt
    DocumentRoot /apps/foo/public
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.bar.com
    DocumentRoot /apps/bar/public
    # An absolute filename is given; Phusion Passenger will
    # check for /restart_files/bar/restart.txt
    PassengerRestartDir /restart_files/bar
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.baz.com
    DocumentRoot /apps/baz/public
    # A relative filename is given; Phusion Passenger will
    # check for /apps/baz/restart_files/restart.txt
    #
    # Note that this directory is relative to the APPLICATION ROOT, *not*
    # the value of DocumentRoot!
    PassengerRestartDir restart_files
</VirtualHost>
-----------------------------------

.What are the security reasons for wanting to customize PassengerRestartDir?
Touching restart.txt will cause Phusion Passenger to restart the application.
So anybody who can touch restart.txt can effectively cause a Denial-of-Service
attack by touching restart.txt over and over. If your web server or one of your
web applications has the permission to touch restart.txt, and one of them has a
security flaw which allows an attacker to touch restart.txt, then that will
allow the attacker to cause a Denial-of-Service.

You can prevent this from happening by pointing PassengerRestartDir to a
directory that's readable by Apache, but only writable by administrators.


=== Security options ===

[[PassengerUserSwitching]]
==== PassengerUserSwitching <on|off> ====
Whether to enable <<user_switching,user switching support>>.

This option may only occur once, in the global server configuration.
The default value is 'on'.

==== PassengerUser <username> ====
If <<user_switching,user switching support>> is enabled, then Phusion Passenger will
by default run the web application as the owner if the file 'config/environment.rb'
(for Rails apps) or 'config.ru' (for Rack apps). This option allows you to override
that behavior and explicitly set a user to run the web application as, regardless
of the ownership of 'environment.rb'/'config.ru'.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.

In each place, it may be specified at most once.

==== PassengerGroup <group name> ====
If <<user_switching,user switching support>> is enabled, then Phusion Passenger will
by default run the web application as the primary group of the owner of the file
'config/environment.rb' (for Rails apps) or 'config.ru' (for Rack apps). This option
allows you to override that behavior and explicitly set a group to run the web application
as, regardless of the ownership of 'environment.rb'/'config.ru'.

'<group name>' may also be set to the special value '!STARTUP_FILE!', in which case
the web application's group will be set to 'environment.rb'/'config.ru''s group.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.

In each place, it may be specified at most once.

[[PassengerDefaultUser]]
==== PassengerDefaultUser <username> ====
Phusion Passenger enables <<user_switching,user switching support>> by default.
This configuration option allows one to specify the user that applications must
run as, if user switching fails or is disabled.

This option may only occur once, in the global server configuration.
The default value is 'nobody'.

[[PassengerDefaultGroup]]
==== PassengerDefaultGroup <group name> ====
Phusion Passenger enables <<user_switching,user switching support>> by default.
This configuration option allows one to specify the group that applications must
run as, if user switching fails or is disabled.

This option may only occur once, in the global server configuration.
The default value is the primary group of the user specifified by
<<PassengerDefaultUser,PassengerDefaultUser>>.

==== PassengerFriendlyErrorPages <on|off> ====
Phusion Passenger can display friendly error pages whenever an application fails
to start. This friendly error page presents the startup error message, some
suggestions for solving the problem, and a backtrace. This feature is very useful
during application development and useful for less experienced system administrators,
but the page might reveal potentially sensitive information, depending on the
application. Experienced system administrators who are using Phusion Passenger
on serious production servers should consider turning this feature off.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess', if `AllowOverride Options` is on.

In each place, it may be specified at most once. The default value is 'on'.


=== Resource control and optimization options ===

==== PassengerMaxPoolSize <integer> ====
The maximum number of Ruby on Rails or Rack application instances that may
be simultaneously active. A larger number results in higher memory usage,
but improved ability to handle concurrent HTTP clients.

The optimal value depends on your system's hardware and the server's average
load. You should experiment with different values. But generally speaking,
the value should be at least equal to the number of CPUs (or CPU cores) that
you have. If your system has 2 GB of RAM, then we recommend a value of '30'.
If your system is a Virtual Private Server (VPS) and has about 256 MB RAM, and
is also running other services such as MySQL, then we recommend a value of '2'.

If you find that your server is unable to handle the load on your Rails/Rack websites
(i.e. running out of memory) then you should lower this value. (Though if your
sites are really that popular, then you should strongly consider upgrading your
hardware or getting more servers.)

This option may only occur once, in the global server configuration.
The default value is '6'.

TIP: We strongly recommend you to <<reducing_memory_usage,use Ruby Enterprise
Edition>>. This allows you to reduce the memory usage of your Ruby on Rails applications
by about 33%. And it's not hard to install.

[[PassengerMinInstances]]
==== PassengerMinInstances <integer> ====
This specifies the minimum number of application instances that must be kept around
whenever Phusion Passenger cleans up idle instances. You should set this option to a
non-zero value if you want to avoid potentially long startup times after a website
has been idle for an extended period.

Please note that this option does *not* pre-start application instances during Apache
startup. It just makes sure that when the application is first accessed:

1. at least the given number of instances will be spawned.
2. the given number of processes will be kept around even when instances are being
   idle cleaned (see <<PassengerPoolIdleTime,PassengerPoolIdleTime>>).

If you want to pre-start application instances during Apache startup, then you should use the <<PassengerPreStart,PassengerPreStart>> directive, possibly in combination with
'PassengerMinInstances'. This behavior might seem counter-intuitive at first sight,
but <<PassengerPreStart,PassengerPreStart>> explains the rationale behind it.

For example, suppose that you have the following configuration:

---------------------------------
PassengerMaxPoolSize 15
PassengerPoolIdleTime 10

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName foobar.com
    DocumentRoot /webapps/foobar/public
    PassengerMinInstances 3
</VirtualHost>
---------------------------------

When you start Apache, there are 0 application instances for 'foobar.com'. Things will
stay that way until someone visits 'foobar.com'. Suppose that there is only 1 visitor.
1 application instance will be started immediately to serve the visitor, while 2 will
be spawned in the background. After 10 seconds, when the idle timeout has
been reached, these 3 application instances will not be cleaned up.

Now suppose that there's a sudden spike of traffic, and 100 users visit 'foobar.com'
simultanously. Phusion Passenger will start 12 more application instances. After the idle
timeout of 10 seconds have passed, Phusion Passenger will clean up 12 application
instances, keeping 3 instances around.

The PassengerMinInstances option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess', if `AllowOverride Limits` is on.

In each place, it may be specified at most once. The default value is '1'.

==== PassengerMaxInstancesPerApp <integer> ====
The maximum number of application instances that may be simultaneously active
for a single application. This helps to make sure that a single application
will not occupy all available slots in the application pool.

This value must be less than <<PassengerMaxPoolSize,PassengerMaxPoolSize>>. A value of 0
means that there is no limit placed on the number of instances a single application
may use, i.e. only the global limit of <<PassengerMaxPoolSize,PassengerMaxPoolSize>>
will be enforced.

This option may only occur once, in the global server configuration.
The default value is '0'.

[[PassengerPoolIdleTime]]
==== PassengerPoolIdleTime <integer> ====
The maximum number of seconds that an application instance may be idle. That is,
if an application instance hasn't received any traffic after the given number of
seconds, then it will be shutdown in order to conserve memory.

Decreasing this value means that applications will have to be spawned
more often. Since spawning is a relatively slow operation, some visitors may
notice a small delay when they visit your Rails/Rack website. However, it will also
free up resources used by applications more quickly.

The optimal value depends on the average time that a visitor spends on a single
Rails/Rack web page. We recommend a value of `2 * x`, where `x` is the average
number of seconds that a visitor spends on a single Rails/Rack web page. But your
mileage may vary.

When this value is set to '0', application instances will not be shutdown unless 
it's really necessary, i.e. when Phusion Passenger is out of worker processes
for a given application and one of the inactive application instances needs to
make place for another application instance. Setting the value to 0 is
recommended if you're on a non-shared host that's only running a few
applications, each which must be available at all times.

This option may only occur once, in the global server configuration.
The default value is '300'.

[[PassengerMaxRequests]]
==== PassengerMaxRequests <integer> ====
The maximum number of requests an application instance will process. After
serving that many requests, the application instance will be shut down and
Phusion Passenger will restart it. A value of 0 means that there is no maximum:
an application instance will thus be shut down when its idle timeout has been
reached.

This option is useful if your application is leaking memory. By shutting
it down after a certain number of requests, all of its memory is guaranteed
to be freed by the operating system.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess', if `AllowOverride Limits` is on.

In each place, it may be specified at most once. The default value is '0'.

[CAUTION]
=====================================================
The <<PassengerMaxRequests,PassengerMaxRequests>> directive should be considered
as a workaround for misbehaving applications. It is advised that you fix the
problem in your application rather than relying on these directives as a
measure to avoid memory leaks.
=====================================================

==== PassengerStatThrottleRate <integer> ====
By default, Phusion Passenger performs several filesystem checks (or, in
programmers jargon, 'stat() calls') each time a request is processed:

- It checks whether 'config/environment.rb', 'config.ru' or 'passenger_wsgi.py'
  is present, in order to autodetect Rails, Rack and WSGI applications.
- It checks whether 'restart.txt' has changed or whether 'always_restart.txt'
  exists, in order to determine whether the application should be restarted.

On some systems where disk I/O is expensive, e.g. systems where the harddisk is
already being heavily loaded, or systems where applications are stored on NFS
shares, these filesystem checks can incur a lot of overhead.

You can decrease or almost entirely eliminate this overhead by setting
'PassengerStatThrottleRate'. Setting this option to a value of 'x' means that
the above list of filesystem checks will be performed at most once every 'x'
seconds. Setting it to a value of '0' means that no throttling will take place,
or in other words, that the above list of filesystem checks will be performed on
every request.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess', if `AllowOverride Limits` is on.

In each place, it may be specified at most once. The default value is '0'.

[[PassengerPreStart]]
==== PassengerPreStart <url> ====
By default, Phusion Passenger does not start any application instances until said
web application is first accessed. The result is that the first visitor of said
web application might experience a small delay as Phusion Passenger is starting
the web application on demand. If that is undesirable, then this directive can be
used to pre-started application instances during Apache startup.

A few things to be careful of:

- This directive accepts the *URL* of the web application you want to pre-start,
  not a on/off value! This might seem a bit weird, but read on for rationale. As
  for the specifics of the URL:
  * The domain part of the URL must be equal to the value of the 'ServerName'
    directive of the VirtualHost block that defines the web application.
  * Unless the web application is deployed on port 80, the URL should contain
    the web application's port number too.
  * The path part of the URL must point to some URI that the web application
    handles.
- You will probably want to combine this option with
  <<PassengerMinInstances,PassengerMinInstances>> because application instances
  started with 'PassengerPreStart' are subject to the usual idle timeout rules.
  See the example below for an explanation.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.

In each place, it may be specified any number of times.

===== Example 1: basic usage =====

Suppose that you have the following web applications.

---------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerName foo.com
   DocumentRoot /webapps/foo/public
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:3500>
   ServerName bar.com
   DocumentRoot /webapps/bar/public
</VirtualHost>
---------------------------

You want both of them to be pre-started during Apache startup. The URL for
foo.com is 'http://foo.com/' (or, equivalently, 'http://foo.com:80/') and
the URL for bar.com is 'http://bar.com:3500/'. So we add two PassengerPreStart
directives, like this:

---------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerName foo.com
   DocumentRoot /webapps/foo/public
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:3500>
   ServerName bar.com
   DocumentRoot /webapps/bar/public
</VirtualHost>

PassengerPreStart http://foo.com/           # <--- added
PassengerPreStart http://bar.com:3500/      # <--- added
---------------------------

===== Example 2: pre-starting apps that are deployed in sub-URIs =====

Suppose that you have a web application deployed in a sub-URI '/store', like this:

---------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerName myblog.com
   DocumentRoot /webapps/wordpress
   RailsBaseURI /store
</VirtualHost>
---------------------------

Then specify the domain name of its containing virtual host followed by the sub-URI,
like this:

---------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerName myblog.com
   DocumentRoot /webapps/wordpress
   RailsBaseURI /store
</VirtualHost>

PassengerPreStart http://myblog.com/store    # <----- added
---------------------------

The sub-URI *must* be included; if you don't then the directive will have no effect.
The following example is wrong and won't pre-start the store web application:

---------------------------
PassengerPreStart http://myblog.com/    # <----- WRONG! Missing "/store" part.
---------------------------

===== Example 3: combining with PassengerMinInstances =====

Application instances started with PassengerPreStart are
also subject to the idle timeout rules as specified by
<<PassengerPoolIdleTime,PassengerPoolIdleTime>>! That means that by default,
the pre-started application instances for foo.com are bar.com are shut down
after a few minutes of inactivity. If you don't want that to happen, then
you should combine PassengerPreStart with
<<PassengerMinInstances,PassengerMinInstances>>, like this:

---------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerName foo.com
   DocumentRoot /webapps/foo/public
   PassengerMinInstances 1      # <--- added
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:3500>
   ServerName bar.com
   DocumentRoot /webapps/bar/public
   PassengerMinInstances 1      # <--- added
</VirtualHost>

PassengerPreStart http://foo.com/
PassengerPreStart http://bar.com:3500/
---------------------------

===== So why a URL? Why not just an on/off flag? =====

A directive that accepts a simple on/off flag is definitely more intuitive,
but due technical difficulties w.r.t. the way Apache works, it's very hard
to implement it like that:

- It is very hard to obtain a full list of web applications defined in the
  Apache configuration file(s). In other words, it's hard for Phusion Passenger
  to know which web applications are deployed on Apache until a web application
  is first accessed, and without such a list Phusion Passenger wouldn't know
  which web applications to pre-start. It's probably not completely impossible
  to obtain such a list, but this brings us to the following point;
- Users expect things like 'mod_env' to work even in combination with Phusion
  Passenger. For example some people put ``SetEnv PATH=....'' in their virtual
  host block and they expect the web application to pick that environment variable
  up when it's started. Information like this is stored in module-specific
  locations that Phusion Passenger cannot access directly. Even if the previous
  bullet point is solved and we can obtain a list of web applications,
  we cannot start the application with the correct mod_env information.
  mod_env is just one such example; there are probably many other Apache modules,
  all of which people expect to work, but we cannot answer to those expectations
  if PassengerPreStart is implemented as a simple on/off flag.

So as a compromise, we made it accept a URL. This is easier to implement for
us and altough it looks weird, it behaves consistently w.r.t. cooperation
with other Apache modules.

===== What does Phusion Passenger do with the URL? =====

During Apache startup, Phusion Passenger will send a dummy HEAD request to the
given URL and discard the result. In other words, Phusion Passenger simulates a
web access at the given URL. However this simulated request is always sent to
localhost, *not* to the IP that the domain resolves to. Suppose that bar.com
in example 1 resolves to 209.85.227.99; Phusion Passenger will
send the following HTTP request to 127.0.0.1 port 3500 (and not to 209.85.227.99
port 3500):

----------------------
HEAD / HTTP/1.1
Host: bar.com
Connection: close
----------------------

Similarly, for example 2, Phusion Passenger will send the following HTTP request
to 127.0.0.1 port 80:

----------------------
HEAD /store HTTP/1.1
Host: myblog.com
Connection: close
----------------------

===== Do I need to edit /etc/hosts and point the domain in the URL to 127.0.0.1? =====

No. See previous subsection.

===== My web application consists of multiple web servers. What URL do I need to specify, and in which web server's Apache config file? =====

Put the web application's virtual host's ServerName value and the virtual host's
port in the URL, and put
PassengerPreStart on all machines that you want to pre-start the web application
on. The simulated web request is always sent to 127.0.0.1, with the domain name
in the URL as value for the 'Host' HTTP header, so you don't need to worry about
the request ending up at a different web server in the cluster.

===== Does PassengerPreStart support https:// URLs? =====

Yes. And it does not perform any certificate validation.

[[PassengerHighPerformance]]
==== PassengerHighPerformance <on|off> ====
By default, Phusion Passenger is compatible with mod_rewrite and most other
Apache modules. However, a lot of effort is required in order to be compatible.
If you turn 'PassengerHighPerformance' to 'on', then Phusion Passenger will be
a little faster, in return for reduced compatibility with other Apache modules.

In places where 'PassengerHighPerformance' is turned on, mod_rewrite rules will
likely not work. mod_autoindex (the module which displays a directory index)
will also not work. Other Apache modules may or may not work, depending on what
they exactly do. We recommend you to find out how other modules behave in high
performance mode via testing.

This option is *not* an all-or-nothing global option: you can enable high
performance mode for certain virtual hosts or certain URLs only.
The 'PassengerHighPerformance' option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess'.

In each place, it may be specified at most once. The default value is 'off',
so high performance mode is disabled by default, and you have to explicitly
enable it.

.When to enable high performance mode?

If you do not use mod_rewrite or other Apache modules then it might make
sense to enable high performance mode.

It's likely that some of your applications depend on mod_rewrite or other
Apache modules, while some do not. In that case you can enable high performance
for only those applications that don't use other Apache modules. For example:

------------------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.foo.com
    DocumentRoot /apps/foo/public
    .... mod_rewrite rules or options for other Apache modules here ...
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.bar.com
    DocumentRoot /apps/bar/public
    PassengerHighPerformance on
</VirtualHost>
------------------------------------

In the above example, high performance mode is only enabled for www.bar.com.
It is disabled for everything else.

If your application generally depends on mod_rewrite or other Apache modules,
but a certain URL that's accessed often doesn't depend on those other modules,
then you can enable high performance mode for a certain URL only. For example:

------------------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.foo.com
    DocumentRoot /apps/foo/public
    .... mod_rewrite rules or options for other Apache modules here ...
    
    <Location /chatroom/ajax_update_poll>
        PassengerHighPerformance on
    </Location>
</VirtualHost>
------------------------------------

This enables high performance mode for
http://www.foo.com/chatroom/ajax_update_poll only.


/////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////


=== Compatibility options ===

[[PassengerResolveSymlinksInDocumentRoot]]
==== PassengerResolveSymlinksInDocumentRoot <on|off> ====
Configures whether Phusion Passenger should resolve symlinks in the document root.
Please refer to <<application_detection,How Phusion Passenger detects whether a
virtual host is a web application>> for more information.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess', if `AllowOverride Options` is on.

In each place, it may be specified at most once. It is off by default.

==== PassengerAllowEncodedSlashes <on|off> ====
By default, Apache doesn't support URLs with encoded slashes (%2f), e.g. URLs like
this: `/users/fujikura%2fyuu`. If you access such an URL then Apache will return a
404 Not Found error. This can be solved by turning on PassengerAllowEncodedSlashes
as well as Apache's
link:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/core.html#allowencodedslashes[AllowEncodedSlashes].

Is it important that you turn on both AllowEncodedSlashes *and* PassengerAllowEncodedSlashes,
otherwise this feature will not work properly.

PassengerAllowEncodedSlashes may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess', if `AllowOverride Options` is on.

In each place, it may be specified at most once. It is off by default.

Please note however that turning on support for encoded slashes will break support for
mod_rewrite passthrough rules. Because of bugs/limitations in Apache, Phusion Passenger
can support either encoded slashes or mod_rewrite passthrough rules, but not both at the
same time. Luckily this option can be specified anywhere, so you can enable it only for
virtual hosts or URLs that need it:

----------------------------------
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.example.com
    DocumentRoot /webapps/example/public
    AllowEncodedSlashes on
    RewriteEngine on
    
    # Check for maintenance file and redirect all requests
    RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/system/maintenance.html -f
    RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !maintenance.html
    RewriteRule ^.*$ /system/maintenance.html [L]
    
    # Make /about an alias for /info/about.
    RewriteRule ^/about$ /info/about [PT,L]
    
    <Location ~ "^/users/">
        # In a location block so that it doesn't interfere with the
        # above /about mod_rewrite rule.
        PassengerAllowEncodedSlashes on
    </Location>
</VirtualHost>
----------------------------------

With this, http://www.example.com/users/fujikura%2fyuu will work properly, and
accessing http://www.example.com/about will properly display the result of
http://www.example.com/info/about. Notice that PassengerAllowEncodedSlashes only
interferes with passthrough rules, not with any other mod_rewrite rules. The rules for
displaying maintenance.html will work fine even for URLs starting with "/users".


=== Logging and debugging options ===

==== PassengerLogLevel <integer> ====
This option allows one to specify how much information Phusion Passenger should
write to the Apache error log file. A higher log level value means that more
information will be logged.

Possible values are:

- '0': Show only errors and warnings.
- '1': Show the most important debugging information. This might be useful for
       system administrators who are trying to figure out the cause of a
       problem.
- '2': Show more debugging information. This is typically only useful for developers.
- '3': Show even more debugging information.

This option may only occur once, in the global server configuration.
The default is '0'.

==== PassengerDebugLogFile <filename> ====
By default Phusion Passenger debugging and error messages are written to the global
web server error log. This option allows one to specify the file that debugging and
error messages should be written to instead.

This option may only occur once, in the global server configuration.


=== Ruby on Rails-specific options ===

==== RailsAutoDetect <on|off> ====
Whether Phusion Passenger should automatically detect whether a virtual host's
document root is a Ruby on Rails application. The default is 'on'.

This option may occur in the global server configuration or in a virtual host
configuration block.

For example, consider the following configuration:

-----------------------------
RailsAutoDetect off
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.mycook.com
    DocumentRoot /webapps/mycook/public
</VirtualHost>
-----------------------------

If one goes to 'http://www.mycook.com/', the visitor will see the contents of
the '/webapps/mycook/public' folder, instead of the output of the Ruby on Rails
application.

It is possible to explicitly specify that the host is a Ruby on Rails
application by using the <<RailsBaseURI,RailsBaseURI>> configuration option:

-----------------------------
RailsAutoDetect off
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.mycook.com
    DocumentRoot /webapps/mycook/public
    RailsBaseURI /           # This line has been added.
</VirtualHost>
-----------------------------

[[RailsBaseURI]]
==== RailsBaseURI <uri> ====
Used to specify that the given URI is a Rails application. See
<<deploying_rails_to_sub_uri,Deploying Rails to a sub URI>> for an example.

It is allowed to specify this option multiple times. Do this to deploy multiple
Rails applications in different sub-URIs under the same virtual host.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess', if `AllowOverride Options` is on.

[[rails_env]]
==== RailsEnv <string> ====
This option allows one to specify the default `RAILS_ENV` value.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess', if `AllowOverride Options` is on.

In each place, it may be specified at most once. The default value is 'production'.

==== RailsFrameworkSpawnerIdleTime <integer> ====
The FrameworkSpawner server (explained in <<spawning_methods_explained,Spawning
methods explained>>) has an idle timeout, just like the backend processes spawned by
Phusion Passenger do. That is, it will automatically shutdown if it hasn't done
anything for a given period.

This option allows you to set the FrameworkSpawner server's idle timeout, in
seconds. A value of '0' means that it should never idle timeout.

Setting a higher value will mean that the FrameworkSpawner server is kept around
longer, which may slightly increase memory usage. But as long as the
FrameworkSpawner server is running, the time to spawn a Ruby on Rails backend
process only takes about 40% of the time that is normally needed, assuming that
you're using the 'smart' <<PassengerSpawnMethod,spawning method>>. So if your
system has enough memory, is it recommended that you set this option to a high
value or to '0'.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.

In each place, it may be specified at most once. The default value is '1800' (30 minutes).

==== RailsAppSpawnerIdleTime <integer> ====
The ApplicationSpawner server (explained in <<spawning_methods_explained,Spawning
methods explained>>) has an idle timeout, just like the backend processes spawned by
Phusion Passenger do. That is, it will automatically shutdown if it hasn't done
anything for a given period.

This option allows you to set the ApplicationSpawner server's idle timeout, in
seconds. A value of '0' means that it should never idle timeout.

Setting a higher value will mean that the ApplicationSpawner server is kept around
longer, which may slightly increase memory usage. But as long as the
ApplicationSpawner server is running, the time to spawn a Ruby on Rails backend
process only takes about 10% of the time that is normally needed, assuming that
you're using the 'smart' or 'smart-lv2' <<PassengerSpawnMethod,spawning method>>. So if your
system has enough memory, is it recommended that you set this option to a high
value or to '0'.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.

In each place, it may be specified at most once. The default value is '600' (10 minutes).

=== Rack-specific options ===

==== RackAutoDetect <on|off> ====
Whether Phusion Passenger should automatically detect whether a virtual host's
document root is a Rack application. The default is 'on'.

This option may occur in the global server configuration or in a virtual host
configuration block.

For example, consider the following configuration:

-----------------------------
RackAutoDetect off
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.rackapp.com
    DocumentRoot /webapps/my_rack_app/public
</VirtualHost>
-----------------------------

If one goes to 'http://www.rackapp.com/', the visitor will see the contents of
the '/webapps/my_rack_app/public' folder, instead of the output of the Rack
application.

It is possible to explicitly specify that the host is a Rack
application by using the <<RackBaseURI,RackBaseURI>> configuration option:

-----------------------------
RackAutoDetect off
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.rackapp.com
    DocumentRoot /webapps/my_rack_app/public
    RackBaseURI /       # This line was added
</VirtualHost>
-----------------------------

[[RackBaseURI]]
==== RackBaseURI <uri> ====
Used to specify that the given URI is a Rack application. See
<<deploying_rack_to_sub_uri,Deploying Rack to a sub URI>> for an example.

It is allowed to specify this option multiple times. Do this to deploy multiple
Rack applications in different sub-URIs under the same virtual host.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess', if `AllowOverride Options` is on.

[[rack_env]]
==== RackEnv <string> ====
The given value will be accessible in Rack applications in the `RACK_ENV`
environment variable. This allows one to define the environment in which
Rack applications are run, very similar to `RAILS_ENV`.

This option may occur in the following places:

 * In the global server configuration.
 * In a virtual host configuration block.
 * In a `<Directory>` or `<Location>` block.
 * In '.htaccess', if `AllowOverride Options` is on.

In each place, it may be specified at most once. The default value is 'production'.

=== Deprecated options ===

The following options have been deprecated, but are still supported for backwards
compatibility reasons.

==== RailsRuby ====
Deprecated in favor of <<PassengerRuby,PassengerRuby>>.

==== RailsUserSwitching ====
Deprecated in favor of <<PassengerUserSwitching,PassengerUserSwitching>>.

==== RailsDefaultUser ====
Deprecated in favor of <<PassengerDefaultUser,PassengerDefaultUser>>.

==== RailsAllowModRewrite ====
This option doesn't do anything anymore in recent versions of Phusion Passenger.

==== RailsSpawnMethod ====
Deprecated in favor of <<PassengerSpawnMethod,PassengerSpawnMethod>>.


== Troubleshooting ==

=== Operating system-specific problems ===

==== MacOS X: The installer cannot locate MAMP's Apache ====

.Symptoms
*******************************************************************************
The installer finds Apache 2 development headers at `/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/apxs`.
However, Apache cannot be found. The installer also outputs the following error:
------------------------------------
cannot open /Applications/MAMP/Library/build/config_vars.mk:
No such file or directory at /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/apxs line 218.
------------------------------------
*******************************************************************************

Your MAMP installation seems to be broken. In particular, 'config_vars.mk' is missing.
Please read link:http://forum.mamp.info/viewtopic.php?t=1866[this forum topic] to learn how
to fix this problem.

See also link:http://code.google.com/p/phusion-passenger/issues/detail?id=12[this bug report].


=== Problems during installation ===

[[installing_ruby_dev]]
==== Ruby development headers aren't installed ====

.Symptoms
*******************************************************************************
Installing Phusion Passenger fails because of one of the following errors:

- The Phusion Passenger installer tells you that the Ruby development headers
  aren't installed.
- The error message ``'no such file to load -- mkmf''' occurs.
- The error message ``'ruby.h: No such file or directory''' occurs.
*******************************************************************************

Phusion Passenger makes use of a native extension, so the Ruby development headers
must be installed. On most Linux systems, Ruby and the Ruby development headers
are contained in separate packages, so having Ruby installed does not
automatically imply having the development headers installed.

Here's how you can install the development headers:

Ubuntu/Debian::
	Please type:
+
-----------------------------------------
sudo apt-get install ruby1.8-dev
-----------------------------------------

Fedora/CentOS/RHEL::
	Please type:
+
-----------------------------------------
su -c 'yum install ruby-devel'
-----------------------------------------

FreeBSD::
	Please install Ruby from 'ports' or with `pkg_add`. If that fails,
	please install Ruby from source.

MacOS X::
	Please install Ruby from source.

Other operating systems::
	Please consult your operating system's native package database.
	There should be a package containing the Ruby development headers.
	If that fails, please install Ruby from source.

NOTE: If you've installed a new Ruby version (i.e. your system now contains
multiple Ruby installations), then you will need to tell Phusion Passenger
which Ruby installation you want to use. Please read
<<specifying_ruby_installation,Specifying the correct Ruby installation>>.

==== Apache development headers aren't installed ====

.Symptoms
*******************************************************************************
Installing Phusion Passenger fails because of one of the following errors:

- The installer says that the Apache development headers aren't installed.
- The error message ``'httpd.h: No such file or directory''' occurs.
+
(Instead of 'httpd.h', the message might also be 'http_config.h' or something
else similar to 'http_*.h'.)
*******************************************************************************

Ubuntu::
	Please type:
+
-----------------------------------------
sudo apt-get install apache2-prefork-dev
-----------------------------------------

Debian::
	Please type:
+
-----------------------------------------
sudo apt-get install apache2-dev
-----------------------------------------

Fedora/CentOS/RHEL::
	Please type:
+
--------------------------------
su -c 'yum install httpd-devel'
--------------------------------

FreeBSD::
	Please install Apache from 'ports' or with `pkg_add`. If that fails,
	please install Apache from source.

MacOS X::
	Please install Apache from source.

Other operating systems::
	Please consult your operating system's native package database.
	There should be a package containing the Apache development headers.
	If that fails, please install Apache from source.


==== APR development headers aren't installed ====

.Symptoms
*******************************************************************************
Installing Phusion Passenger fails because one of the following errors:

- The installer tells you that APR development headers aren't installed.
- The error message ``'apr_pools.h: No such file or directory''' occurs.
- The error message ``'apr_strings.h: No such file or directory''' occurs.
*******************************************************************************

Ubuntu::
	Please type:
+
-----------------------------------------
sudo apt-get install libapr1-dev
-----------------------------------------

Debian::
	Please type:
+
-----------------------------------------
sudo apt-get install libapr1-dev
-----------------------------------------

Fedora/CentOS/RHEL::
	Please type:
+
--------------------------------
su -c 'yum install apr-devel'
--------------------------------

Other Linux distributions::
	Please consult your distribution's package database. There should be a
	package which provides APR development headers.

Other operating systems::
	The APR development are bundled with Apache. If the APR headers aren't,
	then it probably means that they have been removed after Apache's been
	installed. Please reinstall Apache to get back the APR headers.


==== Phusion Passenger is using the wrong Apache during installation ====

Please <<specifying_correct_apache_install,Specifying the correct Apache
installation>>, and re-run the Phusion Passenger installer.


==== Phusion Passenger is using the wrong Ruby during installation ====

Please <<specifying_ruby_installation,Specifying the correct Ruby
installation>>, and re-run the Phusion Passenger installer.


=== Problems after installation ===

[TIP]
.The golden tip: read your Apache error logs!
=====================================================
'mod_passenger' will write all errors to the Apache error log. So if
you're experiencing post-installation problems, please look
inside the Apache error logs. It will tell you what exactly went wrong.
=====================================================

==== My Rails application works on Mongrel, but not on Phusion Passenger ====

Please try setting <<PassengerSpawnMethod,PassengerSpawnMethod>> to 'conservative'.

==== Phusion Passenger has been compiled against the wrong Apache installation ====

.Symptoms
*******************************************************************************
Apache crashes during startup (after being daemonized). The Apache error log
says ``'seg fault or similar nasty error detected in the parent process'''.
*******************************************************************************

This problem is most likely to occur on MacOS X. Most OS X users have multiple
Apache installations on their system.

To solve this problem, please <<specifying_correct_apache_install,specify the
correct Apache installation>>, and <<install_passenger,reinstall Phusion
Passenger>>.

==== I get a "304 Forbidden" error ====

See next subsection.

==== Static assets such as images and stylesheets aren't being displayed ====

Static assets are accelerated, i.e. they are served directly by Apache and do not
go through the Rails stack. There are two reasons why Apache doesn't serve static
assets correctly:

1. Your Apache configuration is too strict, and does not allow HTTP clients to
   access static assets. This can be achieved with an `Allow from all` directive
   in the correct place. For example:
+
-----------------------------------------
<Directory "/webapps/mycook/public">
   Options FollowSymLinks
   AllowOverride None
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
</Directory>
-----------------------------------------
+
See also link:http://groups.google.com/group/phusion-passenger/browse_thread/thread/9699a639a87f85f4/b9d71a03bf2670a5[this discussion].

2. The Apache process doesn't have permission to access your Rails application's folder.
   Please make sure that the Rails application's folder, as well as all of its parent folders,
   have the correct permissions and/or ownerships.

==== The Apache error log says that the spawn manager script does not exist, or that it does not have permission to execute it ====

If you are sure that the 'PassengerRoot' configuration option is set correctly,
then this problem is most likely caused by the fact that you're running Apache
with SELinux. On Fedora, CentOS and RedHat Enterprise Linux, Apache is locked
down by SELinux policies.

To solve this problem, you must set some permissions on the Phusion Passenger files
and folders, so that Apache can access them.

- If you've installed Phusion Passenger via a gem, then run this command to determine
  Phusion Passenger's root folder:
+
------------------------------------------------------------------
passenger-config --root
------------------------------------------------------------------
+
Next, run the following command:
+
------------------------------------------------------------------
chcon -R -h -t httpd_sys_content_t /path-to-passenger-root
------------------------------------------------------------------
+
where '/path-to-passenger-root' should be replaced with whatever
`passenger-config --root` printed.

- If you've installed Phusion Passenger via the source tarball, then run the following
  command:
+
------------------------------------------------------------------
chcon -R -h -t httpd_sys_content_t /path/to/passenger/folder
------------------------------------------------------------------

Once the permissions are fixed, restart Apache.

==== The Rails application reports that it's unable to start because of a permission error ====

Please check whether your Rails application's folder has the correct
permissions. By default, Rails applications are started as the owner of the
file 'config/environment.rb', except if the file is owned by root. If the
file is owned by root, then the Rails application will be started as 'nobody'
(or as the user specify by <<RailsDefaultUser,RailsDefaultUser>>, if that's
specified).

Please read <<user_switching,User switching (security)>> for details.

==== My Rails application's log file is not being written to ====

There are a couple things that you should be aware of:

- By default, Phusion Passenger runs Rails applications in 'production' mode,
  so please be sure to check 'production.log' instead of 'development.log'. See
  <<RailsEnv,RailsEnv>> for configuration.
- By default, Phusion Passenger runs Rails applications as the owner of 'environment.rb'.
  So the log file can only be written to if that user has write permission to the
  log file. Please 'chmod' or 'chown' your log file accordingly.
+
See <<User_switching,User switching (security)>> for details.

If you're using a RedHat-derived Linux distribution (such as Fedora or CentOS)
then it is link:http://code.google.com/p/phusion-passenger/issues/detail?id=4[possible
that SELinux is interfering]. RedHat's SELinux policy only allows Apache to read/write
directories that have the 'httpd_sys_content_t' security context. Please run the
following command to give your Rails application folder that context:

-----------------------------------------------------------
chcon -R -h -t httpd_sys_content_t /path/to/your/rails/app
-----------------------------------------------------------


[[conflicting_apache_modules]]
=== Conflicting Apache modules ===

==== mod_userdir ====

'mod_userdir' is not compatible with Phusion Passenger at the moment.

==== MultiViews (mod_negotiation) ====

MultiViews is not compatible with Phusion Passenger. You should disable MultiViews
for all Phusion Passenger hosts.

==== VirtualDocumentRoot ====

VirtualDocumentRoot is not compatible with Phusion Passenger at the moment.


== Analysis and system maintenance ==

include::users_guide_snippets/analysis_and_system_maintenance.txt[]


== Tips ==

include::users_guide_snippets/tips.txt[]

=== X-Sendfile support ===

Phusion Passenger does not provide X-Sendfile support by itself. Please install
link:http://tn123.ath.cx/mod_xsendfile/[mod_xsendfile] for X-Sendfile support.

=== Upload progress ===

Phusion Passenger does not provide upload progress support by itself. Please
try drogus's link:http://github.com/drogus/apache-upload-progress-module/tree/master[
Apache upload progress module] instead.


== Under the hood ==
Phusion Passenger hides a lot of complexity for the end user (i.e. the web server
system administrator), but sometimes it is desirable to know what is going on.
This section describes a few things that Phusion Passenger does under the hood.

=== Static assets serving ===
Phusion Passenger accelerates serving of static files. This means that, if an URI
maps to a file that exists, then Phusion Passenger will let Apache serve that file
directly, without hitting the web application.

Phusion Passenger does all this without the need for any mod_rewrite rules. People
who are switching from an old Mongrel-based setup might have mod_rewrite rules such
as these:

------------------------------------------------------------
# Check whether this request has a corresponding file; if that
# exists, let Apache serve it, otherwise forward the request to
# Mongrel.
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ balancer://mongrel%{REQUEST_URI} [P,QSA,L]
------------------------------------------------------------

These kind of mod_rewrite rules are no longer required, and you can safely remove
them.

=== Page caching support ===
include::users_guide_snippets/under_the_hood/page_caching_support.txt[]

[[application_detection]]
=== How Phusion Passenger detects whether a virtual host is a web application ===
After you've read the deployment instructions you might wonder how Phusion Passenger
knows that the DocumentRoot points to a web application that Phusion Passenger is
able to serve, and how it knows what kind of web application it is (e.g. Rails or Rack).

Phusion Passenger checks whether the virtual host is a Rails application by checking
whether the following file exists:

------------------------------------------------
dirname(DocumentRoot) + "/config/environment.rb"
------------------------------------------------

If you're not a programmer and don't understand the above pseudo-code snippet, it means
that Phusion Passenger will:

1. Extract the parent directory filename from the value of the DocumentRoot directory.
2. Append the text "/config/environment.rb" to the result, and check whether the resulting
   filename exists.

So suppose that your document root is '/webapps/foo/public'. Phusion Passenger will check
whether the file '/webapps/foo/config/environment.rb' exists.

Note that Phusion Passenger does *not* resolve any symlinks in the document root path by
default since version 2.2.0 -- in contrast to versions earlier than 2.2.0, which do resolve
symlinks.
So for example, suppose that your DocumentRoot points to '/home/www/example.com', which in
turn is a symlink to '/webapps/example.com/public'. In versions earlier than 2.2.0, Phusion
Passenger will check whether '/webapps/example.com/config/environment.rb' exists because it
resolves all symlinks. Phusion Passenger 2.2.0 and later however will check for
'/home/www/config/environment.rb'. This file of course doesn't exist, and as a result Phusion
Passenger will not activate itself for this virtual host, and you'll most likely see an Apache
mod_dirindex directory listing.

If you need the old symlink-resolving behavior for whatever reason, then you can turn on
<<PassengerResolveSymlinksInDocumentRoot,PassengerResolveSymlinksInDocumentRoot>>.

Another way to solve this situation is to explicitly tell Phusion Passenger what the
correct application root is through the <<PassengerAppRoot,PassengerAppRoot>> configuration
directive.

Autodetection of Rack applications happens through the same mechanism, exception that
Phusion Passenger will look for 'config.ru' instead of 'config/environment.rb'.


include::users_guide_snippets/appendix_a_about.txt[]

include::users_guide_snippets/appendix_b_terminology.txt[]

include::users_guide_snippets/appendix_c_spawning_methods.txt[]
