Best way to use PHP with nginx?

[John Moore]

Nuno Magalhães wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 13:45, John Moore <grails at jmsd.co.uk> wrote:
>   
>> I have come across a handful of different methods detailed on the Internet
>> for getting PHP running with nginx, but haven't come across the 'definitive'
>> version. What method do the regular nginx users on here favour?
>>     
>
> Did you search? You'll need a FastCGI daemon or you can proxy it to
> apache's mod_php or something else. There's no definite method, so
> it's your pick. On Debian the php-cgi package serves me just fine.
>
>   
Yes, I searched - the fact that I said "I have come across a handful of 
different methods detailed on the Internet for getting PHP running with 
nginx" surely indicates that.  In fact, I've been running a PHP/nginx 
combination for some time, using the technique outlined here:

    
http://jit.nuance9.com/2008/01/serving-php5-with-nginx-on-ubuntu-710.html

It works fine, although I've not tested it under load. But I came across 
this posting, which suggested a more efficient way to do it:

    http://tomasz.sterna.tv/2009/04/php-fastcgi-with-nginx-on-ubuntu/

He says "There are dozens of HOWTOs for configuring nginx to direct .php 
files requests to FastCGI, but only a few covering the topic of running 
the PHP FastCGI backend. None of them covers the correct way, though. 
Let me show you how to get it right…PHP CGI binary is perfectly able 
running a FastCGI interface by itself. There is no need to run it with 
an external wrapper. No need to install anything more than the PHP itself."

When I tried a while back, I couldn't get this working, I can't exactly 
recall why, but I was planning on giving it another go unless I came 
across another technique which I knew was widely adopted with success, 
hence my question.

I suppose I should really have named the topic "Best way to use PHP with 
nginx under Ubuntu" because that's what I'm most interested in.