Installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL

on Mac OS X
October 9, 2012
Update: I added steps for existing installs which upgraded to Mac OS X Mavericks. For new
installs of Apache, PHP, and MySQL on Mac OS X Mavericks, continue reading.
I have installed Apache, PHP, and MySQL on Mac OS X since Leopard.
Each time doing so by hand. Each version of Mac OS X having some minor
difference. This post serves as much for my own record as to outline how to
install Apache, MySQL, and PHP for a local development environment on
Mac OS X Mavericks.
I am aware of the several packages available, notably MAMP. These
packages help get you started quickly. But they forego the learning
experience and, as most developers report, eventually break. Personally, the
choice to do it myself has proven invaluable.
It is important to remember Mac OS X runs atop UNIX. So all of these
technologies install easily on Mac OS X. Furthermore, Apache and PHP are
included by default. In the end, you only install MySQL then simply turn
everything on.
First, open Terminal and switch to root to avoid permission issues while
running these commands.
sudo su -
Enable Apache on Mac OS X
apachectl start
Note: Prior to Mountain Lion this was an option for Web Sharing in System
Prefrences Sharing.
Verify It works! by accessing http://localhost
Enable PHP for Apache
Mac OS X Mavericks Update: You will need to rerun the steps in this
section after upgrading an existing install to Mac OS X Mavericks.
First, make a backup of the default Apache configuration. This is good
practice and serves as a comparison against future versions of Mac OS X.
cd /etc/apache2/ cp httpd.conf httpd.conf.bak
Now edit the Apache configuration. Feel free to use TextEdit if you are not
familiar with vi.
vi httpd.conf
Uncomment the following line (remove #):
LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so
Restart Apache:
apachectl restart
Install MySQL
1. Download the MySQL DMG for Mac OS X
2. Install MySQL
3. Install Preference Pane
4. Open System Preferences MySQL
5. Ensure the MySQL Server is running
6. Optionally, you can enable MySQL to start automatically. I do.
The README also suggests creating aliases for mysql and mysqladmin.
However there are other commands that are helpful such as mysqldump.
Instead, I updated my path to include /usr/local/mysql/bin.
export PATH=/usr/local/mysql/bin:$PATH
Note: You will need to open a new Terminal window or run the command
above for your path to update.
I also run mysql_secure_installation. While this isnt necessary, its
good practice.
Connect PHP and MySQL
You need to ensure PHP and MySQL can communicate with one another.
There are several options to do so. I do the following:
cd /var mkdir mysql cd mysql ln -s /tmp/mysql.sock mysql.sock
Creating VirtualHosts
You could stop here. PHP, MySQL, and Apache are all running. However,
all of your sites would have URLs like http://localhost/somesite/ pointing
to /Library/WebServer/Documents/somesite. Not ideal for a local
development environment.
Mac OS X Mavericks Update: You will need to rerun the steps below to
uncomment the vhost Include after upgrading an existing install to Mac OS
X Mavericks.
To run sites individually you need to enable VirtualHosts. To do so, well edit
the Apache Configuration again.
vi /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
Uncomment the following line:
Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
Now Apache will load httpd-vhosts.conf. Lets edit this file.
vi /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
Here is an example of VirtualHosts Ive created.
<VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents"
</VirtualHost> <VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot
"/Users/Jason/Documents/workspace/dev" ServerName jason.local
ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/jason.local-error_log"
CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/jason.local-access_log" common
<Directory "/Users/Jason/Documents/workspace/dev">
AllowOverride All Order allow,deny
Allow from all </Directory> </VirtualHost>
The first VirtualHost points to /Library/WebServer/Documents. The
first VirtualHost is important as it behaves like the default Apache
configuration and used when no others match.
The second VirtualHost points to my dev workspace and I can access it
directly from http://jason.local. For ease of development, I also configured some
custom logs.
Note: I use the extension local. This avoids conflicts with any real extensions
and serves as a reminder Im in my local environment.
Restart Apache:
apachectl restart
In order to access http://jason.local, you need to edit your hosts file.
vi /etc/hosts
Add the following line to the bottom:
127.0.0.1 jason.local
I run the following to clear the local DNS cache:
dscacheutil -flushcache
Now you can access http://jason.local.
Note: You will need to create a new VirtualHost and edit your hosts file
each time you make a new local site.
A note about permissions
You may receive 403 Forbidden when you visit your local site. This is likely a
permissions issue. Simply put, the Apache user (_www) needs to have access
to read, and sometimes write, your web directory.
If you are not familiar with permissions, read more. For now though, the
easiest thing to do is ensure your web directory has permissions of 755. You
can change permissions with the command:
chmod 755 some_directory/
In my case, all my files were under my local ~/Documents directory. Which
by default is only readable by me. So I had to change permissions for my
web directory all the way up to ~/Documents to resolve the 403
Forbidden issue.
Note: There are many ways to solve permission issues. I have provided this
as the easiest solution, not the best.
Install PHPMyAdmin
Unless you want to administer MySQL from the command line, I
recommend installing PHPMyAdmin. I wont go into the details. Read the
installation guide for more information. I install utility applications in the
default directory. That way I can access them under, in this
case, http://localhost/phpmyadmin.
cd /Library/WebServer/Documents/ tar -xvf ~/Downloads/phpMyAdmin-
3.5.2.2-english.tar.gz mv phpMyAdmin-3.5.2.2-english/ phpmyadmin cd
phpmyadmin mv config.sample.inc.php config.inc.php
Closing
A local development environment is a mandatory part of the Software
Development Process. Given the ease at which you can install Apache, PHP,
and MySQL on Mac OS X there really no excuse.
- See more at: http://jason.pureconcepts.net/2012/10/install-apache-php-
mysql-mac-os-x/#sthash.VmgMKie1.dpuf

Reference: http://jason.pureconcepts.net/2012/10/install-apache-php-mysql-
mac-os-x/