Compiling a Web Development Environment on Mac OS X

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Dependencies: PCRE
Version: 2.4.6

The Apache HTTP Server is an open-source web server that was released in 1995. It has been the most popular web server on the Internet since April 1996. It is estimated to serve over 60% of all websites.

Get the Code

Switch to /usr/local/src and download the source package.

cd /usr/local/src
curl --remote-name http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/apache/httpd/httpd-VERSION.tar.gz

Extract the archive and move into the folder.

tar -xzvf httpd-VERSION.tar.gz
cd httpd-VERSION

Compile and Install

There are some broken references when attempting to compile using the Command Line Tools. This symbolic link temporarily fixes the problem. You can delete /Applications/Xcode once you are done.

mkdir -p /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/OSX10.8.xctoolchain/usr/bin
ln -s /usr/bin/cc /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/OSX10.8.xctoolchain/usr/bin/cc

Configure, compile and install into /usr/local/apache-VERSION.

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache-VERSION
make
make install

Create a symbolic link that points /usr/local/apache to /usr/local/apache-VERSION.

ln -s apache-VERSION /usr/local/apache

Configuration File

Edit Apache's configuration file.

nano /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf

Copy and paste the following text at the end of the aforementioned file. Make sure you replace the <username> string (3 times) with your OS X short username. This configuration only allows access from your local computer; all outside access is blocked.

ServerName dev.local
User <username>
Group staff

DocumentRoot "/Users/<username>/Sites"
ErrorLog "/usr/local/var/log/apache-error.log"
CustomLog "/usr/local/var/log/apache-access.log" common
<Directory "/Users/<username>/Sites">
	Options All
	AllowOverride All
	IndexOptions NameWidth=*

	Require all denied
	Require host localhost
	Require host 127.0.0.1
</Directory>

You need to disable the ErrorLog and CustomLog directives in the Apache configuration file (leaving the above directives intact). Otherwise, Apache will log the same information to two separate locations.

Web Root

Create a folder that will contain your web sites and applications; such as ~/Sites You can place your projects wherever you'd like but make sure you update the path when mentioned in this article.

mkdir -p ~/Sites

Shell

Execute the following lines to update your Bash startup script.

echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/apache/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export MANPATH=/usr/local/apache/man:$MANPATH' >> ~/.bash_profile

You can also create the following shortcuts if you'd like.

echo 'alias apache-start="sudo /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl -k start"' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'alias apache-stop="sudo /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl -k graceful-stop"' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'alias apache-restart="sudo /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl -k graceful"' >> ~/.bash_profile

Load the new shell configurations.

source ~/.bash_profile

Automatically Start the Server at Boot

Create a configuration file for Launchd.

sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.apache2.plist

Do not name the file org.apache.httpd.plist as it collides with a similarly named file for loading the OS X web server.

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.apache.apache2</string>

	<key>ProgramArguments</key>
	<array>
		<string>/usr/local/apache/bin/httpd</string>
		<string>-D</string>
		<string>FOREGROUND</string>
	</array>

	<key>RunAtLoad</key>
	<true/>
	<key>KeepAlive</key>
	<true/>
	<key>WorkingDirectory</key>
	<string>/usr/local/apache</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Register with Launchd and start the server.

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.apache2.plist

Deregister with Launchd.

sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.apache2.plist

Verify the Installation

To verify that you have correctly installed and started your Apache server, point your web browser to http://localhost/ to load a webpage.