Learning MySQL

Configuring and Controlling the Apache Web Server

For all chapters up through Chapter 12, you will need access to only a MySQL server. To practice the examples in Chapters 13, 14, and 15, you’ll need an Apache web server with support for the PHP language. In Chapter 18, you’ll learn how to run Perl scripts on a Apache web server.

If you haven’t installed Apache using XAMPP, you should check whether you have Apache installed and, if so, whether it supports PHP. You should also check whether your PHP engine supports your installation of MySQL.

If you’ve used the XAMPP package, you can relax, knowing that this has been done for you. You also know how to start and stop Apache using the /opt/lampp/lampp script (Linux), the XAMPP control panel (Windows), or the /Applications/xampp/xamppfiles/mampp script (Mac OS X). If you’re using Linux and aren’t using XAMPP, you’ll need to ensure that your web server can work with your database server.

Apache is installed as part of the standard Mac OS X configuration, where it’s referred to as Personal Web Sharing. You can configure it from the Sharing section of the System Preferences window. However, we’ll rely on the XAMPP installation in this book, so go to the Sharing settings and ensure that Personal Web Sharing is switched off.

In this section, we look at how to check that your web server is running, and how to find the directory from which it serves files to your browser. We also explain where to find the Apache configuration file and error log. ...