Running Apache+FastCGI+Suexec in Ubuntu 10.04 without /var/www

For the last few weeks getting fastcgi and suexec to run on apache without having our sites in /var/www has been something of my holy grail. Here’s how I did it.

1. I downgraded PHP to 5.2 using this procedure. While this might not be necessary I cannot say for certain that the rest will work with PHP 5.3
2. Install the required packages
   sudo apt-get install apache2-suexec-common libapache2-mod-fcgid php5-cgi
3. Enable the necessary modules
   sudo a2enmod fcgid suexec alias
4. Disable the old php module
   sudo a2dismod php5
5. Change the suexec configuration file to correspond to your sites
   cd /etc/apache2/suexec
   sudo nano www-data
   change the first line to the root of your sites (i.e. /home)
6. navigate to the user’s home directory and create the php-fastcgi directory
   cd /home/[username]
   sudo -u [username] mkdir php-fastcgi
7. Create the wrapper file
   cd php-fastcgi
   sudo -u [username] nano wrapper
   Enter the following lines:
   #!/bin/sh
   #PHPRC=”/usr/local/etc”
   #export PHPRC
   #PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=8
   #export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN
   #PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=5000
   #export PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS
   exec /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5
8. Make sure the file is executable
   sudo chmod +x wrapper
9. Edit the sites’ configuration file
   cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
   sudo nano [sitefile]
   Add the following lines
   SuexecUserGroup [username] [username]ScriptAlias /php-fastcgi/ /home/[username]/php-fastcgi/
   FCGIWrapper /home/[username]/php-fastcgi/wrapper .php
   AddHandler fcgid-script .php
   Options ExecCGI Indexes
10. Restart Apache
    sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

This should take care of it. You should now have fastcgi and suexec processing your php files for both better speed and better security than the alternatives. In addition, you can repeat this process for any sites you have located on the server.