# Notes for setting up Ruby on Rails on Plesk 7.5.4 on a Centos 3 (aka Redhat Enterprise 3 / RHEL3) machine.
# Chris James, Systems Developer, Made Media (http://www.mademedia.co.uk/)
# Wed 26 April 2006

# create a working directory.

 mkdir /usr/src/ruby
 cd /usr/src/ruby

# install zlib - I had plenty of problems with zlib issues so compiled it from source.

 wget http://www.zlib.net/zlib-1.2.3.tar.gz
 tar -xzvf zlib-1.2.3.tar.gz
 cd zlib-1.2.3
 mkdir working
 ./configure --prefix=./working
 make && make install

# install ruby, using our compiled zlib

 cd /usr/src/ruby
 wget ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/ruby-1.8.4.tar.gz
 tar -xvzf ruby-1.8.4.tar.gz
 cd ruby-1.8.4
 ./configure --prefix=/usr --with-zlib-dir=../zlib-1.2.3/working --with-static-linked-ext --enable-static
 make && make install

# install gems

 cd /usr/src/ruby
 wget rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/5207/rubygems-0.8.11.tgz
 tar -xvzf rubygems-0.8.11.tgz
 cd rubygems-0.8.11
 /usr/bin/ruby setup.rb all

# install rails

 cd /usr/src/ruby
 gem install rails --include-dependencies

# install fastcgi

 cd /usr/src/ruby
 wget http://www.fastcgi.com/dist/fcgi-2.4.0.tar.gz
 tar -xzvf fcgi-2.4.0.tar.gz
 cd fcgi-2.4.0
 ./configure --prefix=/usr
 make && make install

# install fcgi for ruby - excluding rdoc as threw up errors.

 gem install fcgi --no-rdoc

# install mod_fcgid - note required manual edit of file

 cd /usr/src/ruby
 yum install httpd-devel
 yum install libtool
 wget http://fastcgi.coremail.cn/mod_fcgid.1.09.tar.gz
 tar -xzvf mod_fcgid.1.09.tar.gz
 cd mod_fcgid.1.09
 vim Makefile
  # change top_dir to /usr/lib/httpd
 make
 make install

# tell apache to load mod_fcgid

 cat > /etc/httpd/conf.d/fcgid.conf <<endoffile
  # This file is /etc/httpd/conf.d/fcgid.conf
  # doesn't matter what you name it though
 LoadModule fcgid_module modules/mod_fcgid.so
 <ifmodule mod_fcgid.c>
 AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi
 SocketPath /tmp/fcigdsock
 IdleTimeout 60
 ProcessLifeTime 6000
 MaxProcessCount 64
 DefaultMaxClassProcessCount 8
 DefaultMinClassProcessCount 2
 IPCConnectTimeout 30
 IPCCommTimeout 20
 DefaultInitEnv RAILS_ENV production
 </ifmodule>
endoffile

# install mysql ruby bindings

 yum install mysql-devel

# note copy and paste all following three lines at once...

 gem install mysql -- \
 --with-mysql-include=/usr/include/mysql \
 --with-mysql-lib=/usr/lib/mysql

# nb. (select option 2 or the latest mysql for ruby - !!not win32!!)

# restart the webserver. hopefully it won't crash out - you may wish to check first with apachectl...

 apachectl configtest
 apachectl -k graceful
 /etc/init.d/httpd restart

# now create a new test domain in plesk for testing your install
# this is up to you - I used the Plesk web interface with a ftp username of chirs
# domain name of railstest.mmnet.co.uk at /var/www/vhosts/railstest.mmnet.co.uk
# note /var/www/vhosts is later version of Plesk only. Earlier ones had /home/httpd/vhosts.

# Create a new rails app

 cd /var/www/vhosts/railstest.mmnet.co.uk
 rails rails
 chown -R chris:psacln rails

# If you want to use a prepackages rails application, you can install your app in  it now.
# This is down to you (perhaps untar it or ftp it up!)
# remember to follow the install instructions for the app.
# You **don't** need to do this just to test rails is working.

# now you need to make a slight change to .htaccess file in rails, manually

 cd /var/www/vhosts/railstest.mmnet.co.uk/
 vim rails/public/.htaccess

# (around about line 2) change AddHandler fastcgi-script .fcgi to ...
# AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi
# (around about line 32) change RewriteRule ^(.*)$ dispatch.cgi [QSA,L]
# to RewriteRule ^(.*)$ dispatch.fcgi [QSA,L]

# Now link rails in to the httpdocs directory

 cd /var/www/vhosts/railstest.mmnet.co.uk/
 ln -s  ../rails/public httpdocs/rails
 chown -R chris:psacln httpdocs/rails

# now you should be able to go to http://railstest.mmnet.co.uk/rails (ie you're own domain)
# and use your new rails install. ("Welcome aboard, You're riding the Rails!")

# once you have your app going (note it won't work for just the welcome screen), to check
# your app is using fcgid, after visiting your site, on the command line you can run

 ps aux | grep [d]ispatch.fcgi

# it should return a line like this:
# chris    29300  1.0  4.5 27312 23544 ?       S    12:10   0:01 ruby dispatch.fcgi

# that's it! :)

# I would like to give credit to the other tutorials I followed, but I used that many that I've lost
# track - so thanks to everyone who has made their install experience available on line.