Snow Leopard, Passenger 3, PassengerPane and Stock Apache

08 October 2010 • 1 min read

I finally decided to start using Passenger and the stock Apache in OS X Snow Leopard.

Here are the steps I followed, from memory, so if they are missing anything please let me know.

rvm install ree
rvm ree
rvm gemset create APP_NAME
gem install passenger
rvmsudo passenger-install-apache2-module

Add an .rvmrc file

rvm --rvmrc --create ree@APP_NAME

Find the gems info

rvm ree@APP_NAME
rvm info | grep GEM
  GEM_HOME:     "/Users/mmoen/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2010.02@APP_NAME"
  GEM_PATH:     "/Users/mmoen/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2010.02@APP_NAME:/Users/mmoen/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2010.02@global"

add those to the /etc/apache2/passenger_pane_vhosts/APP_NAME.local.conf

SetEnv GEM_HOME /Users/mmoen/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2010.02@showcase
SetEnv GEM_PATH /Users/mmoen/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2010.02@showcase:/Users/mmoen/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2010.02@global

Make sure the envs are setup in /etc/apache2/passenger_pane_vhosts/APP_NAME.local.conf

RailsEnv development
RackEnv development

If you make changes to routing or other places that don’t autoload, you will need to restart the instance

touch tmp/restart.txt

Known issues:

If you are running a Rails 2.x app this way you will have to delete config.ru before starting or restarting the app. Otherwise it messes up Rails.env. And as always, feel free to tell me I’m way off or if you have any input, please share it.

[edit] Update .rvmrc creation per Wayne’s suggestion