Configure HTTP server: Running separate FastCGI service

Requirements

HTTP server.

Currently, nginx and Apache HTTP Server (2.4 or later) are reported working.

Note:
- For Apache HTTP Server:
  - Instruction described in this chapter needs mod_proxy_fcgi module introduced by HTTP Server 2.4. See another instruction to know about configuration with HTTP Server prior to 2.4.
  - Sympa prior to 6.2.25b.1 has a bug and doesn't work properly with the method described in this chapter. Upgrading to recent version is recommended, or see another instruction.
spawn-fcgi, an implementation of FastCGI server.
FCGI, FastCGI interface for Perl.

General instruction

First, install WWSympa FCGI service. And then configure HTTP server if necessary.

Install WWSympa FCGI service

Systemd

Note:

Systemd support with FastCGI services was introduced on Sympa 6.2.15.

Register WWSympa FastCGI service.

Put wwsympa.service file into Systemd system directory (such as /usr/lib/systemd/system).
- With binary distributions, wwsympa.service file may have already been installed, if that package supports Systemd.
  
  Note:
  - With RPM (RHEL/CentOS 7 or Fedora), this file is prepared by sympa-httpd package.
- If you have installed Sympa from source, and you have given --with-unitsdir=DIR option to configure script, you may find a file wwsympa.service in src/etc/script subdirectory of source tree.
  
  Note:
  - On Sympa prior to 6.2.36, you may find a file nginx-wwsympa.service. Use it as wwsympa.service.
Whichever web server you use, the distributed service file will work. The only thing to take care of is the user defined by the -U option in FCGI_OPTS:
```
FCGI_OPTS="-M 0600 -U apache"
```
The value of this parameter ('apache' in the example) must be set to the username used by your web server (www-data for Apache HTTP Server in Debian, nginx for nginx on most of distributions, etc.)

You can keep this parameter by adding the line above to a file /etc/sysconfig/sympa.

Note:
- You can also serve Sympa SOAP interface with this method. Follow the same instructions but with sympasoap.service (or nginx-sympasoap.service) file.

Start WWSympa FastCGI service.

# systemctl start wwsympa.service
# systemctl status wwsympa.service

Activate WWSympa FastCGI service.
```
# systemctl enable wwsympa.service
```

FreeBSD ports/package

Configure and activate the spawn-fcgi service (Note: Replace $EXECCGIDIR and $PIDDIR below):

# sysrc spawn_fcgi_enable="YES"
# sysrc spawn_fcgi_app="/usr/local/bin/perl"
# sysrc spawn_fcgi_app_args="$EXECCGIDIR/wwsympa.fcgi"
# sysrc spawn_fcgi_bindsocket="$PIDDIR/wwsympa.socket"
# sysrc spawn_fcgi_bindsocket_mode="0600 -U www"
# sysrc spawn_fcgi_username="sympa"
# sysrc spawn_fcgi_groupname"sympa"

Note:

If you also want to serve Sympa SOAP interface with this method, you may have to write an rc script to start another spawn-fcgi service. Contribution by readers will be appreciated.

Start WWSympa FastCGI service.
```
# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/spawn-fcgi start
```

System V init script

If your system supports system V init script, edit example init script as you prefer, and copy it to system V init directory (such as /etc/rc.d/init.d) as the wwsympa file.

Note:
- You can also serve Sympa SOAP interface with this method. Follow the same instructions but with this example init script. Copy it as the sympasoap file.

Start WWSympa FastCGI service.

# service wwsympa start
# service wwsympa status

Activate WWSympa FastCGI service.
```
# chkconfig wwsympa on
```

Setup HTTP server

If you have not added configuration for Sympa to HTTP server, follow instruction below.

nginx

Add following excerpt to nginx configuration (Note: replace $PIDDIR, $EXECCGIDIR and $STATICDIR below):

server {
    listen      80;
    server_name localhost.localdomain;  # Change it!

    location /sympa {
        include       /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass  unix:$PIDDIR/wwsympa.socket;

        # If you changed wwsympa_url in sympa.conf, change this regex too!
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(/sympa)(.*)$;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $EXECCGIDIR/wwsympa.fcgi;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
    }

    location /static-sympa {
        alias $STATICDIR;
    }
}

For the SOAP interface, add this in your server configuration:

    location /sympasoap {
        include       /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass  unix:$PIDDIR/sympasoap.socket;

        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $EXECCGIDIR/sympa_soap_server.fcgi;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
    }

Note:

Some binary distributions ship configuration ready to edit:
- On RPM, /etc/nginx/conf.d/sympa.conf file is prepared by sympa-nginx package.

Edit it as you prefer.

Note that server_name directive above should contain host part of wwsympa_url parameter. Because Sympa refers to SERVER_NAME CGI environment variable to determine web host name of the service.
Restart nginx. Then test configuration according to instruction.

Apache HTTP Server

Add following excerpt to httpd configuration (Note: replace $PIDDIR and $STATICDIR below):

LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so
LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_fcgi_module modules/mod_proxy_fcgi.so

...

<Location /sympa>
    SetHandler "proxy:unix:$PIDDIR/wwsympa.socket|fcgi://"
    Require all granted
</Location>

<Location /static-sympa>
    Require all granted
</Location>
Alias /static-sympa $STATICDIR

For SOAP interface, add:

<Location /sympasoap>
    SetHandler "proxy:unix:$PIDDIR/sympasoap.socket|fcgi://"
    Require all granted
</Location>

Note:

Some binary distributions ship configuration ready to edit:
- On RPM (RHEL/CentOS 7 or Fedora), /etc/httpd/conf.d/sympa.conf file is prepared by sympa-httpd package.

Edit it as you prefer.

Note that ServerName directive above should contain host part of wwsympa_url parameter. Because Sympa refers to SERVER_NAME CGI environment variable to determine web host name of the service.
Restart httpd. Then test configuration according to instruction.

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