macOS Update: While these instructions still work, there are new posts for recent versions of macOS, the latest being Install Apache, PHP, and MySQL on macOS Mojave.
Dec 16, 2016 Apache and PHP come packaged with OS X. To create a local web server, all you need to do is configure Apache and install MySQL. Apache Enable Apache on Mac OS X To check what version of apache you have currently installed on your mac just open you terminal and type httpd -v Verify. 'Download the MySQL package for Mac OS X.5 (32 or 64 bits depending on your machine)' might be good to give a few more hints: all the new macs are Intel arch, and X.6 only runs on Intel arch. Mac OS X 10.5 and later include the MySQL database and Apache server with PHP support. While it certainly is possible to configure the built-in database and server with the IDE, MAMP's all-in-one bundle provides a convenient and easily configurable solution. Download XAMPP for free. An easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP, and Perl. XAMPP is a very easy to install Apache Distribution for Linux, Solaris, Windows, and Mac OS X. The package includes the Apache web server, MySQL, PHP, Perl, a FTP server and phpMyAdmin.
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 Mountain Lion 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.
Enable Apache on Mac OS X
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
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.
Now edit the Apache configuration. Feel free to use TextEdit if you are not familiar with vi.
Uncomment the following line (remove #):
Restart Apache:
Install MySQL
- Download the MySQL DMG for Mac OS X
- Install MySQL
- Install Preference Pane
- Open System Preferences → MySQL
- Ensure the MySQL Server is running
- 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.
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 isn't necessary, it's 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:
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.
OS X Mavericks Update: You will need to rerun the steps below to uncomment the vhostInclude after upgrading an existing install to Mac OS X Mavericks.
To run sites individually you need to enable VirtualHosts. To do so, we'll edit the Apache Configuration again.
Uncomment the following line:
Now Apache will load httpd-vhosts.conf. Let's edit this file.
Here is an example of VirtualHosts I've created.
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 I'm in my local environment.
Restart Apache:
In order to access http://jason.local, you need to edit your hosts file.
Add the following line to the bottom:
I run the following to clear the local DNS cache:
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:
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 won't 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.
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 is no excuse.
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I recently purchased brand new MacBook Pro and I had to install NGINX, PHP and MySQL in my MacBook Pro. In this article, I am going to share my experience for how to install NGINX, PHP and MySQL on your Mac. This article is for someone interesting to set-up web development environment, especially for the first time.
Reson I choose Nginx over Apache web server is its light-weight resource utilization and its ability to scale easily. Also, Niginx has grown its popularity during last few years. Furthermore, Nginx is often selected by administrators for its resource efficiency and responsiveness under the heavy load.
My MacBook Pro installed Mac OS High Sierra and it was shipped with pre-installed PHP package. So, depending on your web development environment setup, you may need to upgrade default PHP version to the latest version.
Mysql Apache Php Server
Normally, Mac OS X doesn’t ship with its own copy of MySQL. So, you will have to install MySQL on your local machine.
Also, remember this article only explain to install these required packages on your local machine. Alternatively, you can set up similar development environment by using Docker or Vagrant. I will write another post in this regarding.
Now let’s have a look how to install NGINX, PHP and MySQL on Mac OS local environment.
Install NGINX
I prefer to use Homebrew package manager to install required additional packages on my Mac OS X.
If you haven’t install Homebrew on your Mac, you just need to copy paste following command on your terminal and Homebrew will install on your Mac automatically. Remember you need an Internet connection to download these packages.
Once you installed Homebrew, you can install NGINX by using the following command.
Nginx will set following document root by default. But you can change to any path using nginx.conf file.
NGINX default document root
/usr/local/var/www
Configure NGINX virtual hosts
I have included my pre-configured virtual hosts as a zip file.
So you can download my pre-configured NGINX virtual host files here.
Once you download the zip file, unzip the contents and then you just need to copy into the following path. Furthermore, my NGINX virtual hosts specially configured for developing Magento 1, Magento 2 and WordPress projects in my local.
Step 1 – Rename existing “nginx” folder /usr/local/etc/
Step 2 – Copy downloaded “nginx” folder in to /usr/local/etc/
Step 3 – Change your system username
All the pre-configured NGINX virtual hosts are located under the following path.
/usr/local/etc/nginx/servers
You will find four configuration files under the above path.
- 00_upstream.conf – For Fast CGI upstream
- 10_localhost.com.conf – For Magento 1 hosts
- 20_localhost.com.conf – For Magento 2 hosts
- magestyle.conf – For WordPress and general hosts
Also, you will notice, each virtual host’s document root is defined under the above configuration files.
Update your host file
Also, you will need to update your host file for the custom virtual host names. So you can have a look my host file as an example.
NGINX server state management
Start NGINX Server
Reload NGINX Server
Stop NGINX Server
Test and verify NGINX services
My local configuration examples:
For Magento 1 projects
Local Document Root – /Users/chatura/htdocs/m1-local
Host name – http://m1-local.localhost.com/
Configuration file path – /usr/local/etc/nginx/servers/10_localhost.com.conf
For Magento2 projects
Local Document Root – /Users/chatura/htdocs/m2-local/web
Host name – http://m2-local.m2.localhost.com/
Configuration file path – /usr/local/etc/nginx/servers/20_localhost.com.conf
For WordPress and other projects
Local Document Root -/Users/chatura/htdocs/wp-test
Host name – http://wp-test.localhost.com/
Local Document Root – /usr/local/etc/nginx/servers/magestyle.conf
Install PHP
If you follow the following steps, you can replace default PHP with Homebrew PHP version. Also, you can easily upgrade or switch your PHP version according your project requirement.
Especially I am going use my development setup for Magento 2 development. So I followed the Magento technology stack documentation before decide which PHP version I need to install. So I am going to install PHP 7.1 version in my local environment as per the Magento 2 latest technology stack.
Use following “brew tap” command to allow Homebrew to tap into Homebrew PHP to formulae. Once you’ve done this, you’ve expanded your options of installable PHP versions. So these additional Git repos will be saved inside the (usr/local/Library/Taps) directory,
To check list of available configuration options
Install PHP without Apache and with PHP FPM
Install additonal PHP extensions
Setup PHP CLI binary
In addition, if you want to use the PHP command line tools, you need to update the $PATH environment variable of your shell profile.
If you use the default Bash shell:
If you use ZSH:
If you are not sure which one you use, run following code in your terminal. I am using ZSH and it returns “/bin/zsh”
Configure PHP using PHP-FPM
PHP-FPM is a modern way of running PHP with a process manager and the FastCGI protocol. Also, this enables high performance as well as easy switching between various versions of PHP.
Note: Also you can install many PHP version with Homebrew package manager. You just need to link required PHP version and unlink other PHP versions.
Check Installed PHP version and php.ini file
PHP service management
Install MySQL
Let’s install MySQL server.
Also, you can use the following command to MySQL server gets automatically started and stopped when the Mac is shutdown/powered on.
Linux Apache Mysql Php
So, you can start MySQL start service manually using the following command for now.
MySQL service management
Test MySQL connection
Apache Mysql Php Install
I hope this article will help you to install Nginx, PHP, MySQL on your Mac OS. Let me know in case you’re stuck at some point or have general feedback. Please feel free to comment below.