[Tfug] debian and nginx and rails

[JD Rogers]

[snip]
> I know the argument can be made that the Passenger-installed version lives
> in the /opt directory and that by being isolated from the rest of the
> system, it's easy enough to uninstall it by simply deleting /opt/nginx . I
> like to keep things tidy though, and feel more at ease if I had a package
> install that has passenger support.

The nice thing about /opt is that if you install on top of it using a
package, you really only change the links in /usr/bin or the ilk. So
if that pesky intern (or you 8 months from now when you forgot what
you did) realizes what happened, you change the simlinks back and
everything should be fine. The only downside is that if the packaged
version breaks something, it could be hard for an admin down the road
to realize what is going on...

> So, I've done exactly that. The deb has been compile and installed on a
> trial basis. It seems to work too :), and all I have to do is install
> officially now.
>
> So here's my question(s): How would you other debian admins/veterans feel
> about this? Am I over-complicating this and should I maybe just let
> Passenger install nginx the way that it wants? Do any of you have
> Rails/Passenger specific experience here, that would advise me away from
> messing with the way that Passenger installed nginx?

Sounds like a pretty clean solution, although the /opt install really
isn't bad either.

One thing I highly recommend that I have started doing with our
servers (especially since I KNOW I will only be in my position for a
few years) is to keep a running googledoc or something of all the
non-standard tweaks on each system. Basically any configuration or
installation that deviates from a vanilla install is listed. I don't
list every package I install, because that should be easy enough to
maintain, but anything else gets a note (custom CUPS conf, anything
installed from source, etc). This makes for a surprisingly short list,
and makes it pretty easy to recreate the setup for the next gen admin.
Glancing at the list for all of 30 seconds should avoid any long days
of trouble shooting / cursing the previous admin.

If you did that, I would guess either solution would be fine.
JDR

> Thanks in advance -- chris
>
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