Using apache

Using apache instead of thin server on Fedora

No, this is NOT reliable. Basically, it's in the "Works for Me" (tm) state. But for those prepared to handle all sorts of difficulties, it's a starting point. FTM, I'm not aware of any bugs.

This content is currently being discussed on Discussions on Fedora Apache wiki page

##General

This page covers the steps which makes diaspora server running on port 3000. Besides this, most users have a need to make this server available to the outside world on port 80. This is not covered at this point. Personally, I just forwarded port 80 on my router to port 3000 on my box.

You can get the same basic behavior that nginx proxy uses from the proxy_balancer Apache mod. With this you can put in a rewrite rule for /diaspora and send it to port 3000. You would still need port 8080 open for the EM server, but there is no reason a basic proxy mechanic shouldn't work. I haven't tried it, but it's the path least fraught with peril.

Mod Proxy

The strategy described above can be set up using something like the below. Mod Proxy and Mod Proxy-Http need to be enabled. myserver.local is an alias set in /etc/hosts.

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName myserver.local
ProxyRequests On
ProxyVia On

<Proxy *>
  AddDefaultCharset off
  Order deny,allow
  Allow from 127.0.0.1 
</Proxy>

ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:3000/
ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:3000/
</VirtualHost>

For a more advanced config have a look at https://gist.github.com/719014

##Passenger A common way to run Rails apps on Apache is the Passenger apache module. See http://www.modrails.com/documentation/Users%20guide.html

There is no Fedora passenger rpm ATM, see https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=470696

See also Installing on Ubuntu Apache

Install passenger module

To setup apache to run diaspora:

  sudo gem install passenger
  sudo  yum install apr-devel httpd-devel rubygem-rake
  sudo passenger-install-apache2-module

Create a new file /etc/httpd/conf.d/passenger.conf with content as given from passenger-install-apache2-module. For me, this was:

 LoadModule passenger_module /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.15/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so
 PassengerRoot /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.15
 PassengerRuby /usr/bin/ruby

Create the diaspora user and setup the web app.

 useradd -md /var/lib/diaspora diaspora
 su - diaspora
 mkdir -p /usr/share/diaspora
 chmod 755 .
 git clone http://github.com/diaspora/diaspora.git master
 cd master
 bundle install --deployment
 mkdir tmp
 cp config/app_config.yml.example app_config.yml
 rake db:seed:dev
 ! Edit app_config.yml, fix at least pod_url

Configure apache server instance

Create a virtual http server for the diaspora app by appending something like this to /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf (using your own servername for host.domain.tld):

Listen 3000
<virtualhost *:3000>
    ServerName     host.domain.tld
    DocumentRoot   /usr/share/diaspora/master
    RailsEnv       development
    RackEnv        development
     <Directory /usr/share/diaspora/master/public>
        AllowOverride None
        Order         allow,deny
        Allow         from all
    </Directory>
</virtualhost>

Run and access server

Restart http and websocket server :

service httpd restart
cd /usr/share/diaspora/master
bundle exec ruby ./script/websocket_server.rb&

Access the server on http://host.domain.tld:3000

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