Thanks to the guys at Dotdeb, we can now run Redmine on Debian using Phusion Passenger. My earlier
requirements were still in force - software to be installed from a repository, upgradable using apt-get and no
compiling on the server.
To use Passenger with Nginx, the official Phusion docs recommend compiling Nginx from source. Fortunately, the
Nginx PPA provided this version of Nginx - nginx-passenger. I got around to checking Dotdeb; and they provided one
for Debian 6 too! The installation is simple.
$ sudo apt-get install nginx-passenger ruby-passenger
You will need to tune it for your server, but many guides are available on the Internet.
# /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
# nginx-passenger config
##
# Uncomment it if you installed nginx-passenger
##
passenger_root /usr/lib/phusion-passenger;
passenger_ruby /usr/bin/ruby;
passenger_max_pool_size 2;
passenger_pool_idle_time 120;
passenger_pre_start http://redmine.example.com/;
## site config using passenger
server {
listen 80;
server_name redmine.example.com;
root /usr/share/redmine/public;
passenger_enabled on;
}