Webpy + Nginx with FastCGI

This cookbook entry explains how to run web.py on Nginx with Fastcgi.

Requirements

Nginx 0.8.* or 0.7.* (with fastcgi and rewrite module).
Webpy 0.32
Spawn-fcgi 1.6.2
Flup

Older versions may work, but aren’t tested.

Resources

Notes

You may replace index.py with your own file name.
/path/to/www Is the path to the directory where your webpy application is located.
/path/to/www/index.py is the full path to your python file.
Do not run anything until you are at Run.

Nginx configuration

location / {
        fastcgi_param REQUEST_METHOD $request_method;
        fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING $query_string;
        fastcgi_param CONTENT_TYPE $content_type;
        fastcgi_param CONTENT_LENGTH $content_length;
        fastcgi_param GATEWAY_INTERFACE CGI/1.1;
        fastcgi_param SERVER_SOFTWARE nginx/$nginx_version;
        fastcgi_param REMOTE_ADDR $remote_addr;
        fastcgi_param REMOTE_PORT $remote_port;
        fastcgi_param SERVER_ADDR $server_addr;
        fastcgi_param SERVER_PORT $server_port;
        fastcgi_param SERVER_NAME $server_name;
        fastcgi_param SERVER_PROTOCOL $server_protocol;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9002;
}

To serve static files add this:

    location /static/ {
        root /path/to/www;
        if (-f $request_filename) {
           rewrite ^/static/(.*)$  /static/$1 break;
        }
    }

Note: the address and port may be different.

Spawn-fcgi

You can start a process with:

spawn-fcgi -d /path/to/www -f /path/to/www/index.py -a 127.0.0.1 -p 9002

Start and shutdown script

Start:

#!/bin/sh
spawn-fcgi -d /path/to/www -f /path/to/www/index.py -a 127.0.0.1 -p 9002

Shutdown:

#!/bin/sh
kill `pgrep -f "python /path/to/www/index.py"`

Note: You’re free to choose which address, port, directory and filename to use, but be sure to adjust the Nginx configuration.

Hello world!

Save the following code in your www directory and call the file index.py (or whatever you like). The following line is required: web.wsgi.runwsgi = lambda func, addr=None: web.wsgi.runfcgi(func, addr).

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

import web

urls = ("/.*", "hello")
app = web.application(urls, globals())

class hello:
	def GET(self):
		return 'Hello, world!'

if __name__ == "__main__":
	web.wsgi.runwsgi = lambda func, addr=None: web.wsgi.runfcgi(func, addr)
	app.run()

Note: make your file executable by doing chmod +x index.py. You’ll get errors if it isn’t executable.

Run

Start a process with spawn-fcgi.
Start Nginx.

To check if it runs do ps aux | grep index.py or simply visit the page in your browser.

To reload your configuration:

/path/to/nginx/sbin/nginx -s reload

And to stop:

/path/to/nginx/sbin/nginx -s stop

NOTES

problem child exited with 2

solution: insert #!/usr/bin/env python into header of main.py

problem spawn-fcgi child exited with 126

solution: chmod +x main.py