---
name: "Catalyst::Manual::Deployment::FastCGI"
section: "3pm"
platform: "linux"
package: "libcatalyst-manual-perl"
version: "5.9013-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Catalyst::Manual::Deployment::FastCGI"
---

# Catalyst::Manual::Deployment::FastCGI(3pm)

Deploying Catalyst with FastCGI

## NAME

Catalyst::Manual::Deployment::FastCGI - Deploying Catalyst with FastCGI

## FastCGI Deployment

FastCGI is a high-performance extension to CGI. It is suitable for production environments, and is the standard method for deploying Catalyst in shared hosting environments.

### Pros

*Speed*

FastCGI performs equally as well as mod\_perl.  Don't let the 'CGI' fool you; your app runs as multiple persistent processes ready to receive connections from the web server.

*App Server*

When using external FastCGI servers, your application runs as a standalone application server.  It may be restarted independently from the web server. This allows for a more robust environment and faster reload times when pushing new app changes.  The frontend server can even be configured to display a friendly "down for maintenance" page while the application is restarting.

*Load-balancing*

You can launch your application on multiple backend servers and allow the frontend web server to perform load-balancing among all of them. And of course, if one goes down, your app continues to run.

*Multiple versions of the same app*

Each FastCGI application is a separate process, so you can run different versions of the same app on a single server.

*Can run with threaded Apache*

Since your app is not running inside of Apache, the faster mpm\_worker module can be used without worrying about the thread safety of your application.

*Widely supported.*

FastCGI is compatible with many server implementations, not just Apache.

### Cons

You may have to disable mod\_deflate.  If you experience page hangs with mod\_fastcgi then remove deflate.load and deflate.conf from mods-enabled/

*More complex environment*

With FastCGI, there are more things to monitor and more processes running than when using mod\_perl.

### Standalone FastCGI Server

In server mode the application runs as a standalone server and accepts connections from a web server.  The application can be on the same machine as the web server, on a remote machine, or even on multiple remote machines. Advantages of this method include running the Catalyst application as a different user than the web server, and the ability to set up a scalable server farm.

To start your application in server mode, install the FCGI::ProcManager module and then use the included fastcgi.pl script.

```
    $ script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -l /tmp/myapp.socket -n 5
```

Command line options for fastcgi.pl include:

```
    -d -daemon     Daemonize the server.
    -p -pidfile    Write a pidfile with the pid of the process manager.
    -l -listen     Listen on a socket path, hostname:port, or :port.
    -n -nproc      The number of processes started to handle requests.
```

See below for the specific web server configurations for using the external server.

## WEB SERVERS

Any web server which supports FastCGI should work with Catalyst. Configuration recipes for well-known web servers are linked below, and we would welcome contributions from people deploying Catalyst on other web servers.

### Apache

Catalyst::Manual::Deployment::Apache::FastCGI

### nginx

Catalyst::Manual::Deployment::nginx::FastCGI

### lighttpd

Catalyst::Manual::Deployment::lighttpd::FastCGI

### Microsoft IIS

Catalyst::Manual::Deployment::IIS::FastCGI

## AUTHORS

Catalyst Contributors, see Catalyst.pm

## COPYRIGHT

This library is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.