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Installing Passenger + Apache
on Mac OS X

This page describes the installation of Passenger through the following operating system or installation method: Mac OS X. Not the configuration you are looking for? Go back to the operating system / installation method selection menu.

Table of contents

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Step 1: install Passenger package

You can install Passenger through Homebrew: 

$ brew install passenger

Not using Homebrew? Please go back to the operating system selection menu and choose "Other" as operating system.

Step 2: enable the Passenger Apache module and restart Apache

Passenger is now installed, but it still needs to be enabled inside Apache. Run brew info passenger and follow the instructions in the "Caveats" section: 

$ brew info passenger
...
==> Caveats
...

To activate Passenger for Apache, create /etc/apache2/other/passenger.conf:
(...more instructions that you should follow...)

When you are done following the instructions, restart Apache:

$ sudo apachectl restart

Running macOS Server >= 10.8 Mountain Lion with Web Services?

If you are running a sufficiently recent version of macOS Server (i.e. not the desktop version), and at the same time you are using the Web Services feature, then:

  • The configuration file you need to create is not /etc/apache2/other/passenger.conf (despite what Homebrew tells you), but /Library/Server/Web/Config/apache2/httpd_server_app.conf.
  • Do not use apachectl to restart Apache. Use the Web Services administration panel to restart Apache.

Step 3: check installation

After installation, please validate the install by running sudo /usr/local/bin/passenger-config validate-install. For example:

$ sudo /usr/local/bin/passenger-config validate-install
 * Checking whether this Phusion Passenger install is in PATH... ✓
 * Checking whether there are no other Phusion Passenger installations... ✓

All checks should pass. If any of the checks do not pass, please follow the suggestions on screen.

Finally, check whether Apache has started the Passenger core processes. Run sudo /usr/local/bin/passenger-memory-stats. You should see Apache processes as well as Passenger processes. For example: 

$ sudo /usr/local/bin/passenger-memory-stats
Version: 5.0.8
Date   : 2015-05-28 08:46:20 +0200

---------- Apache processes ----------
PID    PPID   VMSize    Private  Name
--------------------------------------
3918   1      190.1 MB  0.1 MB   /usr/sbin/apache2
...

----- Passenger processes ------
PID    VMSize    Private   Name
--------------------------------
12517  83.2 MB   0.6 MB    Passenger watchdog
12520  266.0 MB  3.4 MB    Passenger core
12531  149.5 MB  1.4 MB    Passenger ust-router
...

If you do not see any Apache processes or Passenger processes, then you probably have some kind of installation problem or configuration problem. Please refer to the troubleshooting guide.