PHP & MySQL® Web Development All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies®

2.4. Configuring Your Web Server for PHP

Your Web server needs to be configured to recognize PHP scripts and run them.

2.4.1. Configuring Apache on Linux and Mac

You must configure Apache to recognize and run PHP files. An Apache configuration file, httpd.conf, is on your system, possibly in /etc or in /usr/local/apache/conf. You must edit this file before PHP can run properly.

Follow these steps to configure your system for PHP:

1. Open the httpd.conf file so you can make changes.

2. Configure Apache to load the PHP module.

   Find the list of LoadModule statements. Look for the following line:

   LoadModule php6_module libexec/libphp6.so

   If this line isn't there, add it. If a pound sign (#) is at the beginning of the line, remove the pound sign.

   For PHP 5, the line would be

   LoadModule php5_module libexec/libphp5.so

3. Configure Apache to recognize PHP extensions.

   You need to tell Apache which files might contain PHP code. Look for a section describing AddType. You might see one or more AddType lines for other software. Look for the AddType line for PHP, as follows:

   AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

   If you find a pound sign (#) at the beginning of the line, remove the pound sign. If you don't find this line, add it to the AddType statements. This line tells Apache to look for PHP code in all files with a .php extension. You can specify any extension or series of extensions.

4. Start the Apache httpd server (if it isn't running) or restart the Apache httpd server (if it is running).

   You can start or ...