Apache

You should have working installs of MySQL and PHP at this point. The server software to install is called Apache, but the name of the service is httpd.

Installation

Install the basic Apache web server.

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$ brew install httpd
$ sudo brew services start httpd

Line 1 will install the server and configure the defaults for Apache to listen on port 8080. This is the same port that eXist-db will listen on and may cause conflicts later. We will fix this by changing the Apache port later.

Line 2 will start the server. sudo will run the command as root, to ensure that all permissions are set up correctly.

At this point you should be able to visit http://localhost:8080 in a web browser and see that it works.

Configuration

The apache config file is /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf. Open it in a text editor and make the following changes.

1. Listen 8080
   Change this to Listen 80.

   If you don’t have access to port 80, maybe because the people that control things don’t want to give out that kind of access, skip this step. Make sure that you take note of the fact that you skipped the step.

   You should also note this if you work with eXistDb which also listens on port 8080. If you need to run both Apache and eXist at the same time, make sure you change one of their configurations to listen on a different port.

2. User _www
   Change _www to your user name.¹

3. Group _www
   Change _www to staff.

Uncomment these lines by removing the ‘#’ character.

1. #ServerName www.example.com:8080
   Also change www.example.com:8080 to localhost

   If you skipped step 1, skip this step as well.

2. #LoadModule rewrite_module lib/httpd/modules/mod_rewrite.so
   Remove the leading #. No other changes are necessary for this line.

Change where Apache will find documents to serve. Find the DocumentRoot section of the configuration file. It will look like this:

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DocumentRoot "/usr/local/var/www"
<Directory "/usr/local/var/www">
    #
    # Possible values for the Options directive are "None", "All",
    # or any combination of:
    #   Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews
    #
    # Note that "MultiViews" must be named *explicitly* --- "Options All"
    # doesn't give it to you.
    #
    # The Options directive is both complicated and important.  Please see
    # http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#options
    # for more information.
    #
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

    #
    # AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files.
    # It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords:
    #   AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
    #
    AllowOverride None

    #
    # Controls who can get stuff from this server.
    #
    Require all granted

Change it to the following. Changed lines are highlighted. Use your login in place of username on lines 1 and 2.

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DocumentRoot "/Users/username/Sites"
<Directory "/Users/username/Sites">
    #
    # Possible values for the Options directive are "None", "All",
    # or any combination of:
    #   Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews
    #
    # Note that "MultiViews" must be named *explicitly* --- "Options All"
    # doesn't give it to you.
    #
    # The Options directive is both complicated and important.  Please see
    # http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#options
    # for more information.
    #
    Options All FollowSymLinks Multiviews
    MultiviewsMatch Any

    #
    # AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files.
    # It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords:
    #   AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
    #
    AllowOverride All

    #
    # Controls who can get stuff from this server.
    #
    Require all granted
</Directory>

These changes will configure Apache to listen on port 80, which is the usual port for a web server. It will serve files from the Sites directory in your home directory. Anything you place in that directory will be available to the public.

Finally, create the Sites folder if it doesn’t already exist and add some content to it.

$ mkdir -p ~/Sites
$ echo "<h1>Howdy do!</h1>" > ~/Sites/index.html

Once these changes are complete, you must restart Apache for them to take effect.

# If you have access to sudo and port 80
$ sudo brew services start httpd
# If you lack the god-like powers bestowed by "the others"
$ brew services start httpd

Now if you visit http://localhost you should see “Howdy do!” in the page.

Add PHP to Apache

At this point Apache can serve static files like images or text to a browser. It cannot generate a web page or run a program. To do that we must add the PHP module to Apache.

Add this text, as it is, to the httpd.conf file.

LoadModule php7_module /usr/local/opt/php/lib/httpd/modules/libphp7.so
<FilesMatch \\.php$>
  SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</FilesMatch>

Finally, test that Apache and PHP work together.

$ sudo apachectl restart
$ echo "<?php phpinfo();" > ~/Sites/info.php

Now you should be able to visit http://localhost/info.php to see some very useful information about your PHP installation.

Troubleshooting

Check if Apache is running at all.

$ ps ax  | grep httpd
34512   ??  Ss     0:00.08 /usr/local/opt/httpd/bin/httpd -D FOREGROUND
34515   ??  S      0:00.00 /usr/local/opt/httpd/bin/httpd -D FOREGROUND

Read the apache error log. The most recent error output is at the end of the log.

$ open -a Console.app /usr/local/var/log/httpd/error_log

Check the Apache configuration.

$ sudo apachectl -S
VirtualHost configuration:
ServerRoot: "/usr/local/opt/httpd"
(and many more lines)

Commands to Start, stop, or restart the web server are below. If you do not have permissions to use sudo, don’t include it.

$ sudo brew services start httpd
$ sudo brew services stop httpd
$ sudo brew services restart httpd

Footnotes