Apache HTTP Server

Introduction

This document describes how to set up the Apache web server on an Arch Linux system. It also tells how to optionally install PHP and MySQL and integrate these in the Apache server. This combination is commonly referred to as LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP).

If you only need a web server for development and testing, Xampp might be a better and easier option.

Installation

# pacman -S apache php php-apache mysql

This document assumes you will install Apache, PHP and MySQL together. If desired however, you may install Apache, PHP, and MySQL separately and simply refer to the relevant sections below. Template:Box Note

Configuration

Apache

• Create the user http (this account may already exist):

# useradd http

• Add this line to Template:Filename (If the file doesn't exist, create it.):

127.0.0.1  localhost.localdomain   localhost

Note: If you want a different hostname, append it to the end:

127.0.0.1  localhost.localdomain   localhost myhostname

• Edit Template:Filename: If you set a hostname, the Template:Codeline variable should be the same; otherwise, use Template:Codeline:

#
# Networking
#
HOSTNAME="localhost"

• Make sure the hostname appears in /etc/hosts or apache will fail to start. Alternatively, you can

edit Template:Filename as root and comment the following module:

LoadModule unique_id_module        modules/mod_unique_id.so

It should now appear as:

#LoadModule unique_id_module        modules/mod_unique_id.so

• Run the following in a terminal as root to start the HTTP server:

# /etc/rc.d/httpd start

• Apache should now be running. Test by visiting http://localhost/ in a web browser. It should display a simple Apache test page.

• To start Apache automatically at boot, edit Template:Filename as root and add the httpd daemon:

DAEMONS=(... httpd ...)

Or add this line to Template:Filename:

/etc/rc.d/httpd start

• If you want to use user directories (i.e. ~/public_html on the machine is accessed as http://localhost/~user/) to be available on the web, uncomment the following lines in Template:Filename:

UserDir public_html

and

<Directory /home/*/public_html>
  AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit Indexes
  Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch ExecCGI
  <Limit GET POST OPTIONS PROPFIND>
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
  </Limit>
  <LimitExcept GET POST OPTIONS PROPFIND>
    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
  </LimitExcept>
</Directory>

You must make sure that your home directory permissions are set properly so that Apache can get there. Your home directory and ~/public_html/ must be executable for others ("rest of the world"). This seems to be enough:

$ chmod o+x ~
$ chmod o+x ~/public_html

There may be some other, more-secure ways of setting the permissions by creating a special group and allowing only Apache and you to enter there... You know how paranoid you are.

Advanced Options

These options in Template:Filename might be interesting for you:

 # Listen 80

This is the port Apache will listen to. For Internet-access with router, you have to forward the port.

 # ServerAdmin sample@sample.com

This is the admin's email-address which can be found on error-pages e.g.

 # DocumentRoot "/srv/http"

This is the directory where you should put your web pages. Change it, if you want to, but don't forget to change the

<Directory "/srv/http">

to whatever you changed your DocumentRoot to, or you will likely get a 403 error (lack of privileges) when you try to access the new document root. Don't forget to change the Deny from all line, otherwise you will get 403 error too.

PHP

PHP is practically available out of the box now.

• Add these lines in Template:Filename:

NOTE: Place them at the end of "LoadModule" list or bottom of the file.

LoadModule php5_module modules/libphp5.so
Include /etc/httpd/conf/extra/php5_module.conf

NOTE: If you do not see Template:Filename in the Apache modules directory, you may have forgotten to install the php-apache package.

• If your Template:Codeline is outside of /home/, add it to Template:Codeline in Template:Filename as such:

open_basedir = /home/:/tmp/:/usr/share/pear/:/path/to/documentroot

NOTE Should not be necessary anymore (18.08.2009) Suggestion - Add your document root as follows: this is the default

open_basedir = /srv/http:/home/:/tmp/:/usr/share/pear/

• Restart the Apache service to make changes take effect (as root):

# /etc/rc.d/httpd restart

• Test PHP with a simple, but very informative script:

<?php
  phpinfo();
?>

Save this file as Template:Filename and copy to /srv/http/ or to ~/public_html if you permitted such a configuration.

• Test PHP: http://localhost/test.php or http://localhost/~myname/test.php

NOTE: If the php instruction is not executed (you see : <html>...</html>), add this to your Template:Filename:

 AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
 AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

Advanced options

• Remember to add a file handler for .phtml if you need it in Template:Filename:

DirectoryIndex index.php index.phtml index.html

• If you want the libGD module, install php-gd package and uncomment in Template:Filename:

;extension=gd.so

to

extension=gd.so

Pay attention to which extension you uncomment, as this extension is sometimes mentioned in an explanatory comment before the actual line you want to uncomment.

Note: PHP-gd requires libpng, libjpeg, and freetype2

• If you want to display errors to debug your php code, change this line of Template:Filename:

display_errors = Off

to

display_errors = On

• If you want the mcrypt module, install php-mcrypt package and uncomment in Template:Filename:

;extension=mcrypt.so

to

extension=mcrypt.so

MySQL

• Configure MySQL as described at the MySQL wiki.

• Edit Template:Filename (this is in /usr/etc on older systems) to uncomment the following line (By removing Template:Codeline):

;extension=mysql.so

• Caution: Some users have reported typos on this line. Please make sure that it reads Template:Codeline and not Template:Codeline.

• You can add minor privileged users for your web scripts by editing the tables found in the mysql database. You have to restart MySQL for changes to take effect. Don't forget to check the Template:Codeline table. If there's a second entry for root and your hostname is left with no password set, everybody from your host probably could gain full access. Perhaps see next section for these jobs.

• Run in terminal (as root):

# /etc/rc.d/mysqld start

• You may also need to restart Apache. Run in terminal (as root):

# /etc/rc.d/httpd restart

• MySQL should now be running. Set the root password and test it by running

# mysqladmin -u root password password
# mysql -u root -p

Type exit to exit from the CLI MySQL client

• Edit Template:Filename (to start MySQL at boot):

DAEMONS=(... mysqld ...)

Or add this line to Template:Filename:

/etc/rc.d/mysqld start

• You can get the Template:Codeline message instantly whenever you try to connect to the MySQL daemon by TCP/IP. This is the TCP wrappers system (tcpd), which uses the hosts_access(5) system to allow or disallow connections.

• If you're running into this problem, be sure to add this to your Template:Filename file:

 # mysqld : ALL : ALLOW
 # mysqld-max : ALL : ALLOW
 # and similar for the other MySQL daemons.

• Notes: The examples above are the simplest case, telling tcpd to allow connections from anywhere. You may wish to use a more-appropriate choice of permissible sources instead of ALL. Just make sure that localhost and the IP address (numeric or DNS) of the interface by which you connect are specified.

• You might also need to edit Template:Filename and comment out the Template:Codeline line as such:

skip-networking

to

#skip-networking

Note: You may want to install phpmyadmin to work with your databases.

More Resources

• MySQL - Arch wiki article for MySQL
• Xampp - Self contained web-server that supports PHP, Perl, and MySQL
• http://www.apache.org/
• http://www.php.net/
• http://www.mysql.com/