Time for a howto OJS with nginx

Software Support
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1

Hi,

I am struggeling getting ojs to work with nginx. I’d like the URLs, I had in apache to remain after the migration to nginx.

So I need

  • restful urls
  • default journal home page on “GET /”

Now I am struggling with PATH_INFO. If I say disable_path_info = On in config.inc.php the restful urls seem to be gone. I get always redirected to index.php?journal=sr. If I switch disable_path_info = Off I get redirected to base_url[sr] and remain in a redirect loop. Whereas the old apache installation is redirecting me to /sr and then the rewrite rules do the rest.

Does anyone know how to get the PATH_INFO stuff work with ojs and nginx.

I would really like to make it work and then post a little howto here.

2

You’ll want disable_path_info to remain Off for restful urls. As noted in the option comments, the disable_path_info option really should only be used in broken server setups.

Is FastCGI enabled on your server? I don’t have personal experience with nginx, but I do note that the nginx site warns of many incorrect guides out there with nginx’s interaction with FastCGI:
https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/examples/phpfcgi/

3

FastCGI is enabled. Actually the same server is serving a several wordpress sites as virtual hosts without problems.

According to the link you posted I set up a test.php to control the $_SERVER environment which looks like this:

<?php var_export($_SERVER)?>

Now I have two OJS sites (both 2.4.8) with (besides base_url and database name) identical config.inc.php:

  • scienca-revuo.info, the working one. It’s an apache behind a proxying nginx .
  • testo.scienca-revuo.info, the not yet working plain nginx setup.

Now I do an identical http-request on test.php to check the $_SERVER environment.

joh@yksi <0> $ curl scienca-revuo.info/test.php/sr               
array (
  'HTTP_HOST' => 'scienca-revuo.info',
  'HTTP_X_REAL_IP' => '2a01:1e8:e170:fafa:bcab:7b90:b266:96e8',
  'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR' => '2a01:1e8:e170:fafa:bcab:7b90:b266:96e8',
  'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO' => 'http',
  'HTTP_CONNECTION' => 'close',
  'HTTP_USER_AGENT' => 'curl/7.43.0',
  'HTTP_ACCEPT' => '*/*',
  'PATH' => '/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin',
  'SERVER_SIGNATURE' => '<address>Apache/2.4.10 (Debian) Server at scienca-revuo.info Port 80</address>
',
  'SERVER_SOFTWARE' => 'Apache/2.4.10 (Debian)',
  'SERVER_NAME' => 'scienca-revuo.info',
  'SERVER_ADDR' => '127.0.0.1',
  'SERVER_PORT' => '80',
  'REMOTE_ADDR' => '127.0.0.1',
  'DOCUMENT_ROOT' => '/srv/www/ojs/site',
  'REQUEST_SCHEME' => 'http',
  'CONTEXT_PREFIX' => '',
  'CONTEXT_DOCUMENT_ROOT' => '/srv/www/ojs/site',
  'SERVER_ADMIN' => 'webmaster@scienca-revuo.info',
  'SCRIPT_FILENAME' => '/srv/www/ojs/site/test.php',
  'REMOTE_PORT' => '53496',
  'GATEWAY_INTERFACE' => 'CGI/1.1',
  'SERVER_PROTOCOL' => 'HTTP/1.0',
  'REQUEST_METHOD' => 'GET',
  'QUERY_STRING' => '',
  'REQUEST_URI' => '/test.php/sr',
  'SCRIPT_NAME' => '/test.php',
  'PATH_INFO' => '/sr',
  'PATH_TRANSLATED' => 'redirect:/index.php/sr/sr',
  'PHP_SELF' => '/test.php/sr',
  'REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT' => 1457374457.487,
  'REQUEST_TIME' => 1457374457,
)%

and now the nginx one:

joh@yksi <0> $ curl testo.scienca-revuo.info/test.php/sr 
array (
  'USER' => 'www-data',
  'HOME' => '/var/www',
  'FCGI_ROLE' => 'RESPONDER',
  'PATH_INFO' => '/sr',
  'SCRIPT_FILENAME' => '/srv/www/ojs/testo/test.php',
  'QUERY_STRING' => '',
  'REQUEST_METHOD' => 'GET',
  'CONTENT_TYPE' => '',
  'CONTENT_LENGTH' => '',
  'SCRIPT_NAME' => '/test.php',
  'REQUEST_URI' => '/test.php/sr',
  'DOCUMENT_URI' => '/test.php',
  'DOCUMENT_ROOT' => '/srv/www/ojs/testo',
  'SERVER_PROTOCOL' => 'HTTP/1.1',
  'GATEWAY_INTERFACE' => 'CGI/1.1',
  'SERVER_SOFTWARE' => 'nginx/1.6.2',
  'REMOTE_ADDR' => '2a01:1e8:e170:fafa:bcab:7b90:b266:96e8',
  'REMOTE_PORT' => '34500',
  'SERVER_ADDR' => '2001:4d88:2000:29::affe',
  'SERVER_PORT' => '80',
  'SERVER_NAME' => 'testo.scienca-revuo.info',
  'REDIRECT_STATUS' => '200',
  'HTTP_HOST' => 'testo.scienca-revuo.info',
  'HTTP_USER_AGENT' => 'curl/7.43.0',
  'HTTP_ACCEPT' => '*/*',
  'PHP_SELF' => '/test.php/sr',
  'REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT' => 1457374543.162689,
  'REQUEST_TIME' => 1457374543,
)%

As you see, they are different, but what is the difference that decides whether it works or not.

Thanks.

4

If the request is making it to OJS 2.x, the application will primarily be concerned with SCRIPT_NAME and PATH_INFO. See:

Are you sure the HTTPS side of this server is configured correctly? One thing I notice is that a request which should be fulfilled by OJS is immediately redirecting to HTTPS, and then looping there.