PHP

Installation Guide

This section presents the steps to install and configure MySQL, Apache, and PHP under the Linux operating system environment. We then present a short guide to downloading and installing the PHP script examples. The last major section shows how a secure Apache web server can be installed using the Secure Sockets Layer library. We conclude with a list of installation resources for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and other environments.

Installing MySQL, Apache, and PHP

There are three approaches to installing MySQL, Apache, and PHP:

  • Install a distribution of the Linux operating system that includes the software as precompiled packages. This is the easiest approach.
  • Purchase or obtain an installation package; pointers to PHP Triad for the Microsoft Windows environment, and NuSphere for most platforms-including Linux and Sun Solaris-are included at the end. This is an easy approach.
  • Obtain and build the software from source code. This is the most difficult approach, but it has the advantage that the latest software is installed and the configuration layout and options are controlled in the process.

This section focuses on the third approach, obtaining and building the software from source code. Specifically, this section is a short guide to installation under the Linux operating system, and the result is an installation of Apache with PHP as a static module and a complete MySQL installation. We don't provide detailed information on the configuration of the components, installation on other platforms, or choices that can be made in installation. A short list of more detailed installation resources is presented at the end.

Before we begin, several basic components are required:

  • An ANSI-compliant C programming language compiler such as gcc; included in almost all Linux distributions
  • flex, the fast lexical analyzer, included in almost all Linux distributions
  • bison, the GNU project parser generator; included in most Linux distributions
  • Superuser, that is, root access to the Linux machine on which the software is to be installed
  • Common Linux utilities such as gzip, tar, and gmake