Phusion Blog

Phusion Passenger is an Apache and Nginx module for deploying Ruby web applications. It has a strong focus on ease of use, stability and performance. Phusion Passenger is built on top of tried-and-true, battle-hardened Unix technologies, yet at the same time introduces innovations not found in most traditional Unix servers. Since version 3.0 it can also run standalone without an external web server, making it not only easier for first-time users but also ideal on development environments.

Recent changes

Phusion Passenger is under constant maintenance and development. We are pleased to announce Phusion Passenger version 3.0.2. This is a bug fix release.

[Nginx] Fixed compilation problems

The Nginx compilation process was broken due to not correctly reverting the working directory of the Nginx configure script. This has been fixed: issue #595.

[Nginx] Fixed crash if passenger_root refers to a nonexistant directory

Issue #599.

Fixed compilation problems on NetBSD

There was a typo in a NetBSD-specific fcntl() call. It also turns out that NetBSD doesn’t support some ISO C99 math functions like llroundl(); this has been worked around by using other functions. Issue #593.

Fixed file descriptor closing issues on FreeBSD

Phusion Passenger child processes didn’t correct close file descriptors on FreeBSD because it queries /dev/fd to do that. On FreeBSD /dev/fd only returns meaningful results if fdescfs is mounted, which it isn’t by default. Issue #597.

How do I upgrade to 3.0.2?

Via a gem

First install the gem with the following command:

gem install passenger

If you’re using Phusion Passenger for Apache or for Nginx, then re-run the Apache or Nginx module installer, whichever is appropriate:

passenger-install-apache2-module
passenger-install-nginx-module

At the end the installer will tell you to paste a configuration snippet into your web server config file. Replace the old snippet that you already had with this new one.

Phusion Passenger Standalone users don’t need to run anything else. Whenever you type

passenger start

it will automatically upgrade itself.

Via a native Linux package

John Leach from Brightbox has kindly provided Ubuntu packages for Phusion Passenger. The package is available from the Brightbox repository which you can find at:

http://apt.brightbox.net

Add the following line to the Third Party Software Sources:

deb http://apt.brightbox.net hardy main

(The simplest way to do that is to create a file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ containing the deb instruction, and then run ‘apt-get update’).

Once you’ve done this then you can install Phusion Passenger by running:

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-passenger

-or-

sudo apt-get install nginx-brightbox

(Note that John is currently packaging 3.0.2, so it might take a while before this release shows up in the apt repository.)

Final

Phusion Passenger is provided to the community for free. If you like Phusion Passenger, please consider sending us a donation. Thank you!