As such, I’ve just spent the last couple of days getting things all set-up nicely so that I can get on with my work. Most of the work that I do is web development orientated, and mainly using Perl and Catalyst, so an install of Apache and mod_perl is needed.

OS X does come with a complete install of Apache (even with mod_perl!) out of the box and ready to go (info on using this set-up can be found here), but I’m also working on another project that may involve the use of Jaxer, and this requires a newer build of Apache than the one shipped with Leopard.

Thankfully building these tools isn’t too complicated, here’s a quick dump of my notes on getting this done. Note, I’m installing them into /usr/local so that I don’t mess with any of the OS X internals that I shouldn’t be touching - this is completely removable.

First, make a work area for building:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/src
sudo chgrp admin /usr/local/src
sudo chmod -R 775 /usr/local/src
cd /usr/local/src

Apache

curl -O http://apache.mirror.infiniteconflict.com/httpd/httpd-2.2.11.tar.gz
tar zxvf httpd-2.2.11.tar.gz
cd httpd-2.2.11

Now here’s the big one - the Apache configuration. This compiles a heap of modules I probably don’t need, but it’s nice to have them there in case I do ever need them…

CFLAGS="-O3" CXXFLAGS="-O3" \
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache2 \
--enable-autoindex \
--enable-cache \
--enable-cgi \
--enable-deflate \
--enable-dir \
--enable-disk_cache \
--enable-fastcgi \
--enable-file_cache \
--enable-headers \
--enable-include \
--enable-info \
--enable-log_config \
--enable-log_forensic \
--enable-logio \
--enable-mem_cache \
--enable-mime \
--enable-mime_magic \
--enable-negotiation \
--enable-perl \
--enable-proxy \
--enable-proxy-balancer \
--enable-proxy-http \
--enable-rewrite \
--enable-speling \
--enable-status \
--enable-suexec \
--enable-userdir \
--enable-usertrack \
--enable-version \
--enable-vhost_alias \
--enable-so \
--enable-mods-shared=all

Then the standard make and install:

make
make test
sudo make install

Now to add some configuration so that Apache starts on system boot, first we need to create a startup script:

cd /System/Library/StartupItems/
sudo mkdir Apache
cd Apache
sudo touch Apache
sudo chmod a+x Apache
mate Apache

Paste this content into the file:

#!/bin/sh
 
##
# Apache HTTP Server
##
 
. /etc/rc.common
 
StartService () {
	ConsoleMessage "Starting Apache web server"
	/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start
}
 
StopService () {
	ConsoleMessage "Stopping Apache web server"
	/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl stop
}
 
RestartService () {
	ConsoleMessage "Restarting Apache web server"
	/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl restart
}
 
RunService "$1"

Then a configuration file:

sudo touch StartupParameters.plist
mate StartupParameters.plist

Paste this content into the file:

{
  Description     = "Apache web server";
  Provides        = ("Web Server");
  Requires        = ("DirectoryServices");
  Uses            = ("Disks","Network Time");
  OrderPreference = "None";
}

Then reboot and open up http://localhost to make sure things have worked.

Mod Perl

This is a lot more straight forward:

cd /usr/local/src
curl -O http://perl.apache.org/dist/mod_perl-2.0-current.tar.gz
tar zxvf mod_perl-2.0-current.tar.gz
cd mod_perl-2.0.4
perl Makefile.PL MP_AP_PREFIX=/usr/local/apache2
make
make test
sudo make install

Now all you have to do is add the following line to your Apache httpd.conf (/usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf) with all of the LoadModule entries:

LoadModule perl_module modules/mod_perl.so

All done!

phpPgAdmin is a web based GUI for administrating a PostgreSQL database server.

Here’s some quick notes on getting it installed easily on Ubuntu 7.10…

In the terminal enter the following:

$ sudo apt-get install phppgadmin

This will set up and install all of the phpPgAdmin packages. It will also set-up and configure Apache and php5 for you too if you haven’t installed these already.

Next we need to create a symlink to phpPgAdmin so that Apache can find it:

$ sudo ln -s /etc/phppgadmin/apache.conf /etc/apache2/conf.d/phppgadmin.conf

Now if you navigate to http://localhost/phppgadmin you should be greeted with the phpPgAdmin screen. If your user account has a PostgreSQL account however, you will be logged in automagically.

Optionally, if you would like to be able to use the phpPgAdmin interface as the default ‘postgres’ administration account,¹ you will need to do the following²…

$ sudo gedit /usr/share/phppgadmin/conf/config.inc.php

Now find and change the following line

$conf['extra_login_security'] = true;

to

$conf['extra_login_security'] = false;

Save and close gedit. Now all you need to do is restart Apache.

$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Now if you head on over to http://localhost/phppgadmin all should be ready for you.

Thankfully the answer (like most things with Ubuntu) was found on the Ubuntu Forums…

Simply edit the file /etc/apache2/apache2.conf by adding the following line:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .phtml

Now php files should be handled by the server in the way that they were intended.