[SOLVED] nginx + php (fastcgi) + win32 = “No input file specified”

You’ve probably found this post while searching for nginx and php (fastcgi with php-cgi) for windows. I ran into the “No input file specified.” problem and finally figured it out. The key is we are running on windows and not unix/linux. Windows paths are not /home/user/dir they are c:\cygwin\home\user\dir.

Keep reading for a complete How To nginx + php-cgi on windows :)

1. Install cygwin
   • path=c:\cygwin
   • packages
     • devel (make,autoconf,etc)
     • nano (an editor…)
2. Download nginx source
   • I used - nginx-0.7.22
   • start cygwin shell
   • cd (make sure in home dir)
   • wget http://sysoev.ru/nginx/nginx-0.7.22.tar.gz
   • tar -zxf nginx-0.7.22.tar.gz
3. Compile nginx
   • cd nginx-0.7.22
   • ./configure –conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf –sbin-path=/bin/ –pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid
     (there are other options, these just put things where I’m used to them being - gentoo)
   • make
   • make install
4. Configure nginx
   • nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

     worker_processes 1;
     
     error_log /home/znd-norr/www/log/error_log info;
     
     events {
       worker_connections  64;
     }
     
     http {
       include       /etc/nginx/mime.types;
       default_type  application/octet-stream;
     
       log_format main
         '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] '
               '"$request" $status $bytes_sent '
         '"$http_referer" "$http_user_agent" '
         '"$gzip_ratio"';
     
       client_header_timeout 10m;
       client_body_timeout   10m;
       send_timeout          10m;
     
       connection_pool_size          256;
       client_header_buffer_size     1k;
       large_client_header_buffers   4 2k;
       request_pool_size             4k;
     
       gzip off;
     
       output_buffers  1 32k;
       postpone_output  1460;
     
       sendfile  on;
       tcp_nopush  on;
       tcp_nodelay  on;
     
       keepalive_timeout  75 20;
     
       ignore_invalid_headers  on;
     
       index index.php index.html;
     
       server {
         listen    127.0.0.1:80;
         server_name  localhost;
     
         access_log /home/norr/www/log/localhost.access_log main;
         error_log   /home/norr/www/log/localhost.error_log info;
     
         root /home/norr/www/html;
     
         client_max_body_size 4m;
     
         location ~ \.php$ {
           fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
           fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  c:/cygwin/home/norr/www/html$fastcgi_script_name;
           include        /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
         }
       }
     }
     

5. Start nginx in the cygwin window
   • nginx
   • You should be able to go to http://localhost/ now
6. Create a test php file
   • echo “<?php phpinfo() ?>” > /home/norr/www/html/info.php
   • now goto http://localhost/info.php - should get bad gateway (we haven’t setup php yet)
7. Install PHP
   • I used - PHP 5.2.6 installer http://www.php.net/downloads.php
   • installed to “G:\Programs\PHP” - no spaces in path seems to be a good idea with things
   • selected the mysql extenseion
   • configured as “other cgi server”
8. Create a shortcut to php-cgi
   • open the shortcut properties
   • add “-b 127.0.0.1:9000 -c php.ini” to the target - this will use the php.ini file in G:\Programs\php.ini
   • make sure the start in is set to “G:\Programs\PHP” (directory you installed to)
   • click the shortcut php-cgi should start and be listening on post 9000 on ip 127.0.0.1
9. Refresh browser as http://localhost/info.php should load

I’ve done the above from memory so there might be some errors - leave a comment and I’ll amend :)