PHP generally runs on a web server like lighttpd taking PHP code as its input and creating Web pages as output. FastCGI is a protocol for interfacing interactive programs with a web server. Lighttpd has mod_fastcgi to run php application.

Assuming that you have php installed (see these instructions on installing Lighttpd+MySQL+php5 under FreeBSD), open lighttpd.conf file:

# vi /usr/local/etc/lighttpd.conf

Make sure FASTCGI module is enabled:

server.modules += ( “mod_fastcgi” )

Now append following code

fastcgi.server = ( “.php” =>
( “localhost” =>
(
“socket” => “/tmp/php-fastcgi.socket”,
“bin-path” => “/usr/local/bin/php-cgi”
)
)
)

Save and close the file. Restart lighttpd:
# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/lighttpd restart