MongoDB — Compiling a Web Development Environment on Mac OS X

Links: Homepage | Downloads
Dependencies: None
Version: 2.0.2

MongoDB is a scalable, high-performance, open source, schema-free, document-oriented database. MongoDB was created by 10gen and they have been kind enough to provide pre-compiled binaries for various platforms including Mac OS X.

Get the Code

Switch to /usr/local/src and download the pre-compiled binaries.

cd /usr/local/src
curl --remote-name http://fastdl.mongodb.org/osx/mongodb-osx-x86_64-VERSION.tgz

Install

Unpack the binaries into /usr/local.

tar -zxvf mongodb-osx-x86_64-VERSION.tgz -C ..

Create a symbolic link to /usr/local/mongodb.

ln -s mongodb-osx-x86_64-VERSION /usr/local/mongodb

Databases

Create a folder that will contain your databases. My databases are located in /usr/local/var/mongodb. You can place your databases wherever you'd like but make sure you update the path when mentioned in this article.

mkdir -p /usr/local/var/mongodb

Configuration File

Create a configuration file so you can make changes to your database configuration without messing around with command line arguments.

nano /usr/local/mongodb/mongod.conf

Copy and paste the following text into the aforementioned file.

# Location of MongoDB databases
dbpath = /usr/local/var/mongodb
# Location of log files
logpath = /var/log/mongod.log
# Only accept local connections
bind_ip = localhost
# Enable journaling
journal = true
# Enable REST
rest = true
# Enable smaller default file sizes
# (saves space on development servers)
smallfiles = true

Shell

Add the following line to your Bash startup script to put MongoDB into your path.

echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/mongodb/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bash_profile

Load the new shell configurations.

source ~/.bash_profile

Manually Starting and Stopping the Server

Start the server to test your installation.

sudo mongod --config=/usr/local/mongodb/mongod.conf

To shut down the MongoDB server, press CTRL-C.

Automatically Starting the Server at Boot

Create a configuration file for Launchd.

sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.mongodb.mongod.plist

Copy and paste the following text into the aforementioned file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.mongodb.mongod</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/mongodb/bin/mongod</string>
        <string>--config=/usr/local/mongodb/mongod.conf</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

And finally, execute the following command to register the configuration file with Launchd.

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.mongodb.mongod.plist

If you ever want to stop your MongoDB server from automatically starting at boot, issue the following command.

sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.mongodb.mongod.plist

Verify the Installation

To verify that you have correctly installed and started your MongoDB server, point your web browser to http://localhost:28017/ to load the MongoDB console.