Setting up a local LAMP web server on OS X

websetup.md

Spinning up a local web server on OS X shouldn't be difficult, but it's a little fussy. This is a reminder list.

MySQL

Install MySQL

Update the path of the mysql socket. This fixes an OS X bug.

If you have a file at /tmp/mysql.sock but none at /var/mysql/mysql.sock, then:

$ sudo mkdir /var/mysql
$ sudo chmod 755 /var/mysql
$ sudo ln -s /tmp/mysql.sock /var/mysql/mysql.sock

If you have /var/mysql/mysql.sock but no /tmp/mysql.sock, then:

$ ln -s /var/mysql/mysql.sock /tmp/mysql.sock

Create a MySQL user for the webserver to use:

CREATE DATABASE newdb;
CREATE USER 'example'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'examplepass';
GRANT ALL ON newdb.* TO 'example'@'localhost';

(Obviously, this user might not need ALL permissions.)

Apache

Change default web hosting to your local Sites directory

Edit /etc/apache2/httpd.conf to look in the right places, and allow full access:

Find the section that begins:

<Directory "/Library/Webserver/Documents">

Edit the path to your Sites directory, or some other full path you put you web stuff:

<Directory "/Users/YourUsername/Sites">

Within the indented block begining with that '', make these changes:

Replace AllowOverride None with AllowOverride All. This will let .htaccess work.

Replace Options FollowSymLinks Multiviews with Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Multiviews. This will enable indexes in directories without index.* files.

Enable php

Remove the comment (#) from the line:

#LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

Enable url rewriting

If you use .htaccess files, you'll probably want to enable url rewriting by removing the comment here, too:

#LoadModule rewrite_module libexec/apache2/mod_rewrite.so

Enable user directories

If you have multiple users, or whatever: Uncomment:

LoadModule userdir_module libexec/apache2/mod_userdir.so

and

Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-userdir.conf

Vhosts

Optionally, create a vhosts entry to use a domain name other than localhost.

To do this, uncomment this line in httpd.conf:

Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

Then edit /etc/apache2/httpd/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf:

<VirtualHost example.domain:80>
    ServerAdmin example@example.com
    DocumentRoot "/path/to/files"
    ServerName example.domain
    ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/example.domain-error_log"
    CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/example.domain-access_log" common

    <Directory /path/to/files>
      Order allow,deny
      Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Check syntax and restart Apache

Check the syntax of Apache's config files:

$ apachectl -S

If everything looks good, start apache (if not - Google):

$ mkdir ~/Sites
$ sudo apachectl start

Permissions

Make sure that Apache can read your web files. It runs as the _www user in the _www group.

• Add all of your web folders to the _www group by running: sudo chgrp -R _www /path/to/www

If that's a problem, here's another way:

• Add _www to an ACL for your web folders: chmod -R +a "_www allow read,execute" /path/to/www

If you'll be using web caches or logs, give the server permission to use the caches and/or logs:

• By changing the group and giving the group write permission

$ sudo chgrp -R _www /path/to/log/or/cache
$ sudo chmod -R g+w /path/to/log/or/cache

If that doesn't work for some reason:

• By adding write to the acl: chmod -R +a "_www allow read,write,execute" /path/to/www/cache