Comments on: Mac OS X Installation Instructions That Don’t Suck! (Rails, Lighttpd, MySQL, Apache2, PHP5)

By: bryan d

bryan d — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 03:42:37 +0000

I have an up-to-date and working Rails environment as per the instructions at Hivelogic. However, when I followed the instructions for installing apache2 and php5 at PHPmac – throwing everything in my /usr/local folder – it still says PHP 4.4.7 when I type “php -v” in Terminal. Do I need to edit my path for PHP5 to be recognized? Thanks.

By: Marnen Laibow-Koser

Marnen Laibow-Koser — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:26:47 +0000

Apache 2 will not screw up the OS, and you can run it and Apache 1 side by side, as long as you use different ports.

By: Michael Josh

Michael Josh — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:40:26 +0000

Hi Jim,

Another Mac user. I need to configure PHP, MySQL and MySQLi on my Mac for a class.

So far I’ve got around to using the default Apache installation on OS X, with upgraded versions of PHP and MYSQL.

However my professor wants to see my Apache error log (which I can’t find). Since I’m using the version of Apache that comes with the system Apache is hidden somewhere, unlike my new PHP and MYSQL installations which are now in /usr/local/.

For more flexibility I’ve been considering upgrading to Apache 2. I’m afraid it can screw up the OS or something similar. Have you had any problems so far? What do I have to keep in mind to make sure the installation runs smoothly?

Also how can I following the PHPMAC instructions make sure that Apache 2 gets installed into the /usr/local/ directory?

Thanks.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:02:52 +0000

Here’s a question about the ~/.bash_login file. It seems that everytime I open a new Terminal window I have to run that command to get anything to work correctly. If I don’t, its like I don’t have Rails installed. Is that common, or did I install something incorrectly?

Bryan

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 05:22:04 +0000

Chris, I usually don't put my websites in the default Apache folder. Instead, I edit my httpd.conf file to point to a different directory. This is also helpful because it allows you to run more than one virtual site at the same time. To edit the file, enter this in Terminal:

sudo nano /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

Then at the bottom of your configuration file, enter something like this:

NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1


   ServerName sitename.local
   DocumentRoot /Path/To/Web/Files
   AddDefaultCharset utf-8

More info on Name-based Virtual Hosts For this to work, you'll also need to edit your hosts file.

sudo nano /etc/hosts

Add your new, local domain name to this file near the top, like this:

127.0.0.1       sitename.local

Good Luck! Jim

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 16:45:40 +0000

I’m wondering where I will put my server pages if I install Apache2 in usr/local? If it’s in a “hidden” directory, how do I get to the htdocs directory?

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 10:20:32 +0000

Bill,
Like in all *nix systems, Terminal sessions are opened in the user’s home directory (ex, /Users/bill/). This home directory is aliased by the ~ symbol, so ~/Desktop would be the same as /Users/bill/Desktop.

Yes, OS X does have a different directory structure than, say, FreeBSD or Linux. For example, in Ubuntu Linux the user’s home directory is at /home/username. They also added directories like Applications and Library that are not standard *nix directories. As a general rule, Apple’s custom directories are the ones that are not hidden. Most of the standard *nix directories are there, just hidden.

By: bill d

bill d — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 00:12:44 +0000

Since OS X has hidden the file structure from the “average” user, I would assume that the user/local directory is the default directory when Terminal is opened?

Or is it another directory. Maybe I need a crash corse on OS X directory structure. And BTW: Did OS X change some of the directory structure of *nix?

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 09:15:21 +0000

Bill,
Whenever you’re dealing with hidden files in OS X, it’s best to just use Terminal to view them.

ls – a

This will show you all files in a directory (including hidden ones).

nano

Nano is your best friend when editing configuration files. (ex. nano ~/.bash_login )

Don’t ever use TextEdit to edit these files as it generally saves them as RTF files, and that’ll really mess things up!

By: bill d

bill d — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 15:44:21 +0000

Jim,
I read a related article on “Hivelogic” about from the page you link to above. It says the following:
“Set The Path
By default, tell the system to look in /usr/local for files first by editing your path. On Mac OS X, either create or edit a file called .bash_login in your home folder (note the �?�.�?�, it�??s a hidden file) and add the following line to it:
export PATH=”/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:$PATH” ”

Problem is is that I don’t know now to view hidden files. Also, once I can “see” the file how do I open to edit it?