Specifications
Chapter 5 Working with Open Source Applications 71
At some point a newer version of MySQL will be posted to www.mysql.com. At that
time you can download the source and build it (if you have the developer packages
installed) or you can download the relevant binary distribution and install it, following
the instructions posted on that website.
By default, such installations reside in the /usr/local/mysql/ folder. If you install your
own version of MySQL, you’ll have two versions of MySQL present on your system. This
causes no harm as long as you don’t try to run the two versions at the same time.
Be sure to use commands intended for the new version by specifying the full path
(starting with /usr/local/mysql/), or make sure your shell’s path variable is set to search
in your local folder rst.
Working with Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is a web application framework, becoming very popular because
of its ease of development, scalability, and support for the Model-View-Controller
architecture, and because it uses Ajax via the Prototype and Script.aculo.us libraries.
Details can be found at www.rubyonrails.org.
In Mac OS X Server v10.6, Ruby on Rails is installed with several useful gems
(component packages), including the Mongrel web server.
The Mongrel web server comes with the mongrel_rails tool to manage it. Mac OS X
Server v10.6 supports the deployment of Ruby on Rails applications in the following ways:
It includes an enhanced version of the  mongrel_rails tool called mongrel_rails_
persist, which creates a launchd plist le to run Mongrel persistently (across
reboots) and causes it to register with Bonjour.
This is helpful because it allows the Server Admin Web Site Proxy panel to nd
instances of Mongrel running on the same machine, and presents their URLs in the
Balancer Members popup. More details about mongrel_rails_persist are available
on its main page.
It allows administration of Apache 2.2 mod_proxy_balancer in the Server Admin Â
web service Sites Proxy panel. This allows several instances of Mongrel (or another
back-end http server) to be accessed via a single URL and allows Apache to
distribute its load to those services in a congured proportion.
It includes mod_fastcgi for customers who have used it to solve conguration issues Â
and prefer to use it over mod_proxy_balancer. This module is disabled by default.