PHP¶

For operating PHP based applications we chose to use FPM.

We assume the service user is called s-phpsite, and that the docroot is /srv/s-phpsite/docroot. But of course you can use different service user names, and different docroots.

Installation¶

Note that on the NixOS platform it is not necessary to activate a role to install PHP. You can install PHP into the service user:

ssh your-vm
sudo -iu s-phpsite
nix-env -iA nixos.php70

There are different PHP versions to choose from:

nixos.php55
nixos.php56
nixos.php70

Note

You can install different PHP versions at the same time on the same machine in different service users.

Configuration¶

Add configuration for FPM (/srv/s-phpsite/phpfpm.conf):

[global]
error_log = syslog
daemonize = yes
log_level = notice

[app_pool]
listen = 127.0.0.1:9002
pm = dynamic
pm.max_children = 10
pm.start_servers = 4
pm.min_spare_servers = 4
pm.max_spare_servers = 4
pm.max_requests = 500

Of course the specific values depend on the expected load and the VM dimensions.

You can add a php.ini which suits your needs to /srv/s-phpsite/php.ini.

Register the FPM with systemd, to get a running process. Since there are some variables, like PATH to fill out, feel free to copy-paste the following shell-snippet (as service user, s-phpsite in our case):

(
cat <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=FPM phpsite1

[Service]
Environment="PATH=$PATH"
User=$USER
Group=service

ExecStart=$HOME/.nix-profile/bin/php-fpm -n -y $HOME/phpfpm.conf -g $HOME/phpfpm.ini
Type=forking

EOF
) > /etc/local/systemd/phpsite.service

sudo fc-manage --build

Here is a snippet for configuring the phpfpm support into your nginx virtual host (see also the nginx role documentation):

root /srv/s-phpsite/docroot;

location / {
    index index.php;
    if (!-f $request_filename) {
        rewrite  ^(.*)$  /index.php  last;
        break;
    }
}

location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9001;
    fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.*)$;
    include /etc/local/nginx/fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    fastcgi_param HTTPS off;
}

Local PEAR configuration¶

PEAR is shipped with PHP, and you will need a local configuration to use it:

pear config-create $HOME $HOME/.pearrc

For PEAR to work, PHP needs to include PEAR in php.ini (see above):

include_path = "/srv/s-phpsite/pear/php"