For example, I have an internal server that we do most of our development on and we’ve typically placed everything in the default htdocs directory. That tends to be a problem if we’re working on a pre-existing application that was designed to work only from the root level.

In the following steps I’ll describe setting up a virtual host and how to trick your computer into simulating the domain service.

On your remote machine, edit the apache configuration file (locations may vary). By default, it’s typically found in /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf.

Search for and uncomment the following section:

# Virtual hosts
Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

Save the file, and then proceed with editing that include file:

vi /usr/local/apache2/conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

The first step is to create a new virtual host. In the following example, we tell apache that any traffic to this server under the domain name “myfakedomain” should be treated as a request for the files under the new DocumentRoot.

The second virtual host describes the original default server configuration. Paths to folders will vary depending on how apache was originally installed and configured.

<virtualhost *:80>
DocumentRoot "/usr/local/apache2/virt/myfakedomain.com"
ServerName myfakedomain.com
</virtualhost>

<virtualhost *:80>
DocumentRoot "/usr/local/apache2/htdocs"
ServerName localhost
</virtualhost>


After saving your changes, you need to edit the hosts file on the remote machine so that when apache restarts, it doesn’t go looking for the real domain name you’ve provided.

Using either root or a sudo account, edit the hosts file:

/etc/hosts

Add a new line that follows the pattern of the existing examples:

127.0.0.1 myfakedomain.com

Then, restart apache:

/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl restart

You also need to edit your local hosts file so that your system redirects any traffic to myfakedomain.com to your network server, rather than trying to search the internet for it.

For Mac OS X 10.5 users, you may do this by using the same method as the remote server:

sudo vi /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 myfakedomain.com

Save the file and then flush out any cache:

dscacheutil -flushcache

Open your web browser and try to access myfakedomain.com. You should see whatever was in your apache document root.

In order to get support for mysql as well as tools necessary for compiling, you need to install the apple developer tools. Check your original mac disc as you may already have a copy.

Anyway, on with our install:

Apache

First, download the latest version of the apache httpd web server.

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache --enable-module=so --enable-module=rewrite

Then, run the standard make, sudo make install.

MySQL

Then download the latest mysql source file. Make sure you download the source “Compressed GNU TAR archive (tar.gz)” as we’ll need to custom compile it.

However, PHP5 no longer includes mysql shared libraries needed during the configure process. To get these, download the source file for the mysql version you just installed. Once downloaded, decompress it and run the following:

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql --with-unix-socket-path=/usr/local/mysql/run/mysql_socket --with-mysqld-user=mysql --with-comment --with-debug

make

sudo make install

sudo /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_install_db --force

sudo mkdir /usr/local/mysql/run
sudo mkdir /usr/local/mysql/data

sudo chgrp -R mysql /usr/local/mysql

sudo chown -R mysql /usr/local/mysql/run /usr/local/mysql/var /usr/local/mysql/data

Then start the server with:

sudo /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

zlib

Then, install zlib if it’s not already installed on your system. Download zlib, and it should be a basic ./configure, make, sudo make install process.

Once zlib is installed, make sure you know the path as we’ll need it during the php configure process.

PHP

Next, download the latest php package. Decompress it, and now we’re ready to configure.

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache --enable-cli --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql --with-zlib-dir=/usr/local --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs

Then, run make and sudo make install to complete the process.

Restart apache and test everything out. If php didn’t do it automatically, add in AddType application/x-httpd-php .php to your httpd.conf file – commonly located in /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf.

Then, start your webserver.

sudo /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start

And finally, once everything is done you’ll want to setup your account to properly allow access to mysql and apache commands. Just run the following to add their paths to your bash profile:

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