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.
PHP Update: Mac OS X El Capitan comes pre-installed with PHP version 5.5 which has reached its end of life. After you complete this post, you should upgrade PHP on Mac OS X.
About Firefox for Mac Mozilla Firefox is a graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation and a large community of external contributors. Firefox started as a fork of the Navigator browser component of the Mozilla Application Suite.
Note: This post is for new installations. If you have installed Apache, PHP, and MySQL for Mac OS X Yosemite, read my post on Updating Apache, PHP, and MySQL for Mac OS X El Capitan.
Mac OS X runs atop UNIX. So most UNIX software installs easily on Mac OS X. Furthermore, Apache and PHP come packaged with Mac OS X. To create a local web server, all you need to do is configure Apache and install MySQL.
I am aware of the web server software available for Mac OS X, notably MAMP. These get you started quickly. But they forego the learning experience and, as most developers report, can become difficult to manage.
Running Commands
First, open the Terminal app and switch to the root user so you can run the commands in this post without any permission issues:
Enable Apache on Mac OS X
Verify It works! by accessing http://localhost
Enable PHP for Apache
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:
You can verify PHP is enabled by creating a phpinfo() page in your DocumentRoot.
The default DocumentRoot for Mac OS X El Capitan is /Library/WebServer/Documents. You can verify this from your Apache configuration.
Now create the phpinfo() page in your DocumentRoot:
Verify PHP by accessing http://localhost/phpinfo.php
Install MySQL on Mac OS X El Capitan
Download and install the latest MySQL generally available release DMG for Mac OS X.
The README suggests creating aliases for mysql and mysqladmin. However there are other commands that are helpful such as mysqldump. Instead, you can update your 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.
Finally, you should run mysql_secure_installation. While this isn't necessary, it's good practice to secure your database.
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:
Additional Configuration (optional)
The default configuration for Apache 2.4 on Mac OS X seemed pretty lean. For example, common modules like mod_rewrite were disabled. You may consider enabling this now to avoid forgetting they are disabled in the future.
I edited my Apache Configuration:
I uncommented the following lines (remove #):
If you develop multiple projects and would like each to have a unique url, you can configure Apache VirtualHosts for Mac OS X.
If you would like to install PHPMyAdmin, return to my original post on installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL on Mac OS X.
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