Nginx Cache Purge Preload for Wordpress (NPP)

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	WordPress solution for Nginx Cache management

NPP allows WordPress users to manage Nginx Cache operations directly from the WordPress admin dashboard, enhancing website performance and caching efficiency. NPP supports Nginx FastCGI, Proxy, SCGI, and UWSGI cache purge and preload operations, making it the most comprehensive solution for managing Nginx Cache from your WordPress dashboard.

Check out! 🐳 NPP Dockerized Full Stack Deploy

Check out Dockerized repository that provides a complete full-stack deployment for NPP. It includes pre-configured Dockerfiles, a Docker Compose setup, and detailed instructions to get your site running in minutes. Maintained alongside the main NPP plugin. It’s ideal for production, development, and testing environments, offering a streamlined way to simplify your deployment workflow with containerized solutions. If you are on All-in-One Monolithic Server arc you can still use pre-made automation bash script below.

Requirements

NPP is compatible exclusively with Nginx web servers running on Linux-powered systems. Additionally, the shell_exec function must be enabled and unrestricted. Consequently, the plugin may not operate fully on shared hosting environments where native Linux commands are blocked from running via PHP.

Moreover, granting the correct permissions to the PHP process owner (PHP-FPM-USER) is essential for the proper functioning of the purge and preload operations. This is necessary in isolated user environments that have two distinct user roles: the WEBSERVER-USER and the PHP-FPM-USER.

📌 If you see warnings or if any plugin settings or tabs are disabled, this could indicate permission issues, an unsupported environment, or missing dependencies that the plugin requires to function properly. NPP is completely free OpenSource project!

📌 You do not need any external Nginx module. If you're deploying on an All-in-One Monolithic Server simply execute the following one liner after installing plugin and follow instructions.

➡️bash <(curl -Ss https://psaux-it.github.io/install.sh)

Plugin Key Features

➡️Purge All Nginx Cache: Completely clear all cached data stored by Nginx.
➡️Preload All Nginx Cache: Populate the Nginx cache with the most recent data for the entire website.
➡️Auto Preload Nginx Cache: Automatically preload the cache after purging, ensuring fast page load times by caching content proactively. This feature is triggered when Auto Purge is enabled for a single post/page or when the Purge All cache action is used.
➡️Auto Purge Nginx Cache: The cache is automatically purged when the active theme is updated, a plugin is activated, updated, or deactivated, or when compatible caching plugins trigger a purge. For posts/pages, the cache is cleared when content is updated or a comment’s status changes. If Auto Preload is enabled, the cache for the post/page or the entire site is reloaded after purging, ensuring your content remains up-to-date.
➡️Schedule Cache Purge & Preload via WP Cron: Automate the purge and preload process using WordPress Cron jobs.
➡️Remote Nginx Cache Purge & Preload via REST API: Remotely trigger cache purging and preloading through REST API endpoints.
➡️Manual Nginx Cache Purge & Preload: Allow manual purging and preloading of cache through the table view in Advanced Tab.
➡️On-Page Nginx Cache Purge & Preload: Manually purge and preload Nginx cache for the currently visited page directly from the frontend.
➡️Custom Cache Key Support: Define a regex pattern to parse URLs based on your custom (fastcgi|proxy|uwsgi|scgi)_cache_key format.
➡️Optimized Nginx Cache Preload: Enhance Nginx cache preload performance with options to limit server resource usage, via exclude endpoints, exclude file extensions, wait retrievals and rate limiting.
➡️Monitor Plugin and Nginx Cache Status: Monitor plugin status, cache status, cache preload status, and Nginx status from the Status tab.
➡️User-Friendly Interface: Easy-to-use AJAX-powered settings, integrated into the WordPress admin bar for quick access.
➡️Admin Notices and Logs: Receive handy notifications and view logs for plugin status and all cache-related actions within the WordPress admin area.
➡️Email Notifications: Receive email alerts upon completion of preload actions, with customizable templates to suit your needs.

How NPP Manages Nginx Cache?

Overview

NPP automates Nginx cache purging and preloading in WordPress environments where WEBSERVER-USER and PHP-FPM-USER operate separately. Unlike external Nginx modules, NPP directly removes cache files from the cache directory, provided PHP-FPM-USER has the necessary permissions. This method eliminates the need for direct Nginx interaction, offering greater flexibility for managing cache operations, particularly in modern containerized environments.

To ensure PHP-FPM-USER has the required permissions, NPP includes a pre-configured bash script that can be manually executed on the host, making it easy to get started and benefit from the plugin.

Installation Instructions (All-in-One Monolithic Server)

1. Download latest plugin from official wordpress plugin repository or from our latest releases and install to your wordpress instance also you can search plugin on wordpress admin dashboard as 'fastcgi cache purge and preload for nginx'
2. Call install.sh one liner to start automated setup;

Switch to root user:

sudo su - root || su - root
bash <(curl -Ss https://psaux-it.github.io/install.sh)

or directly with sudo

sudo bash -c "$(curl -Ss https://psaux-it.github.io/install.sh)"

What does install.sh do?

The install.sh script serves as a wrapper for executing the main fastcgi_ops_root.sh script from our automation repository. This script is designed for the NPP WordPress plugin, which can be found at Official WordPress Plugin Repository.

The script first attempts to automatically identify the PHP-FPM-USER along with their associated Nginx Cache Paths. If cannot automatically match the PHP-FPM-USER with their respective Nginx Cache Path, provides an easy manual setup option using the manual-configs.nginx file, where users can add multiple PHP-FPM-USER and their associated Nginx Cache Paths.

In environments with two distinct user roles—the WEBSERVER-USER and the PHP-FPM-USER —this script automates the management of Nginx Cache Paths. Utilizes bindfs to create a FUSE mount of the original Nginx Cache Paths, enabling the PHP-FPM-USER to write to these directories with the necessary permissions. This approach resolves permission conflicts by granting the PHP-FPM-USER access to a new mount point, while keeping the original Nginx Cache Paths intact and synchronized.

After the setup (whether automatic or manual) completed, the script creates an npp-wordpress systemd service that can be managed from the WordPress admin dashboard under the NPP plugin STATUS tab.

Additionally, NPP users have the flexibility to manage FUSE mount and unmount operations for the original Nginx Cache Path directly from the WP admin dashboard, effectively preventing unexpected permission issues and maintaining consistent cache stability.

Scriptless Setup Instructions

These instructions guide you through setting up the NPP plugin in environments where PHP-FPM-USER and WEBSERVER-USER are distinct, manually, without the automation script install.sh

Prerequisites

• Web Server: NGINX configured with caching.
• Example Users:
  • PHP-FPM-USER (PHP process owner, e.g., psauxit).
  • WEBSERVER-USER (commonly nginx or www-data).
• Tools: A Linux-based server with bindfs installed.

Example Environment

• Original Nginx Cache Path: /dev/shm/fastcgi-cache-psauxit
• FUSE Mount Point: /dev/shm/fastcgi-cache-psauxit-mnt
  • This mount path will be used as the Nginx Cache Path in the NPP plugin settings.

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Steps

1. Install bindfs

Install bindfs using your Linux distribution's package manager:

# For Gentoo
emerge --ask sys-fs/bindfs

# For Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install bindfs

# For Red Hat/CentOS
sudo yum install bindfs

2. Create the FUSE Mount Directory

Create a new directory for the FUSE mount:

mkdir /dev/shm/fastcgi-cache-psauxit-mnt

3. Set Up the bindfs Mount

Mount the original Nginx cache path to the FUSE mount directory with the appropriate permissions for psauxit:

bindfs -u psauxit -g psauxit --perms=u=rwx:g=rx:o= /dev/shm/fastcgi-cache-psauxit /dev/shm/fastcgi-cache-psauxit-mnt

To make the mount persistent, add the following line to /etc/fstab:

bindfs#/dev/shm/fastcgi-cache-psauxit /dev/shm/fastcgi-cache-psauxit-mnt fuse force-user=psauxit,force-group=psauxit,perms=u=rwx:g=rx:o= 0 0

After editing /etc/fstab, apply the changes:

mount -a

4. Configure NPP Plugin

1. Go to the NPP plugin settings page in your WordPress dashboard.
2. Set /dev/shm/fastcgi-cache-psauxit-mnt as the Nginx Cache Path.
3. Check the plugin Status tab for any warnings.

Visuals

npp.2.mp4

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Here is the short explanation of proper php-fpm nginx setup

Here is the short explanation of proper php-fpm nginx setup

PHP-FPM-USER (as known as the website user)

The PHP-FPM user should be a special user that you create for running your website, whether it is Magento, WordPress, or anything.

WEBSERVER-USER (as known as the webserver user)

NGINX must run with it own unprivileged user, which is nginx (RHEL-based systems) or www-data (Debian-based systems).

Connecting PHP-FPM-USER and WEBSERVER-USER

We must connect things up so that WEBSERVER-USER can read files that belong to the PHP-FPM-GROUP This will allow us to control what WEBSERVER-USER can read or not, via group chmod permission bit.

IMPORTANT:

Granting additional group permissions to the "nginx/www-data" user can potentially introduce security risks due to the principle of least privilege. Your PHP-FPM-USER should never have sudo privileges, even if it's not listed in the sudoer list, as this can still pose security drawbacks. Therefore, we will set the website content's group permission to "g=rX" so that "nginx/www-data" can read all files and traverse all directories, but not write to them.

usermod -a -G PHP-FPM-GROUP WEBSERVER-USER

This reads as: add WEBSERVER-USER (nginx/www-data) to PHP-FPM-GROUP (websiteuser group).

chown -R PHP-FPM-USER:PHP-FPM-GROUP /home/websiteuser/websitefiles

Here is a simple rule: all the files should be owned by the PHP-FPM-USER and the PHP-FPM-GROUP:

chmod -R u=rwX,g=rX,o= /home/websiteuser/websitefiles

This translates to the following:

• PHP-FPM-USER can read, write all files, and read all directories
• PHP-FPM-GROUP (meantime WEBSERVER-USER) can read all files and traverse all directories, but not write
• All other users cannot read or write anything

PHP-FPM POOL SETTINGS

../fpm-php/fpm.d/websiteuser.conf

[websiteuser.com]
user = PHP-FPM-USER
group = PHP-FPM-GROUP
listen.owner = WEBSERVER-USER
listen.group = WEBSERVER-GROUP
listen.mode = 0660
listen = /var/run/php-fcgi-websiteuser.sock

This is proper php-fpm nginx setup example.