MAMP: Macintosh, Apache, MySQL, PHP
On Windows, I use the excellent Wamp to set up a local development environment with Apache, MySQL and PHP. On the Mac, I just discovered MAMP which lets me do the same thing.
Although OS X comes with Apache and PHP you have to turn PHP on manually and install MySQL whereas MAMP handles all that for you. (Installing it is as easy as installing any other OS X application, just drag it to your Applications folder.) Furthermore, MAMP creates a self-contained installation that doesn't alter any other settings on your computer. You can simply trash the folder if you want to uninstall it.
The MAMP: Macintosh, Apache, MySQL, PHP article by Aral Balkan, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England License.
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Sandip Saini
Melatonina Melatonine
Ken Simpson
Gabriela Portilla
Scott Janousek
Yes, it’s pretty sweet. I had been using the server logistics apps until I transitioned to MAMP.
I wonder if the final version of leopard will have some sort of admin console for the preinstalled apache server.
August 20th, 2006 at 3:53 pmJolyon
I’m sure you were singing the praises of XAMPP a while back, why don’t you just use the OSX version here:
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-macosx.html
August 21st, 2006 at 9:43 amPete
Ah lovely, i hadnt thought to look for a MAC version.
Heres one back for you, lovely way to enable postfix from the command line,
sudo postfix start
badabing
August 21st, 2006 at 12:42 pmLEE
sank you! Just last week I was beginning to look into LAMP’s, and how to setup some sort of local database madness. Yes, I’m n00b. thanks!
August 21st, 2006 at 1:30 pmJohn Giotta
Do you know if you need IIS to run WAMP?
August 22nd, 2006 at 8:48 pmaral
Nope, no IIS needed (is there IIS for OS X?) It installs Apache.
August 24th, 2006 at 1:43 amaral
Jolyron: I discovered Wamp after XAMPP. I actually find it easier to work with.
August 24th, 2006 at 1:47 ammg
Thats like saying do you need a Ford to drive a Chevy.
WAMP, is Windows, Apache, Mysql, and PHP; IIS is Microsoft’s Database package.
They compete with each other.
December 4th, 2006 at 9:24 pmll
Thank you for this, do i need to uninstall all previous versions of mysql, xampp and other packages i have installed… it seems a mess down there… Could you write a tut on how to get the leopard back to a fresh start with apache, mysql and php please
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:09 pmAral
@ll: You’re welcome! Unfortunately, I really only use MAMP and haven’t messed with the built-in servers, etc. And I actually downgraded to Tiger and I’m waiting for 10.5.2 at least before I give Leopard another chance.
January 23rd, 2008 at 7:08 pmBrady
I Have MAMP installed, once up i hit open start page. It opens safari
“Safari can’t open the page “http://localhost:8888/MAMP/?language=English” because it can’t find the server “localhost”. as well as
Safari can’t open the page “http://localhost:8888/MAMP/joomla_1” because it can’t find the server “localhost”.
http://localhost/ only gives me APACHE– I’m trying to load joomla to test.
Can you help get this thing going
thaks
July 13th, 2008 at 1:29 amChris
Brady-
October 17th, 2008 at 10:28 amDid you figure it out? I used to have no problem with MAMP, but now same issues as you are seeing…..
Matt
Brady and Chris (and anyone else who’s interested),
Like Chris, I had been using MAMP with no problems, in my case for several months. Today, though, I encountered the same problem Brady described. I recently upgraded from OX 10.4 to OS 10.5.5, which I suppose could have something to do with it, but I’ve done other things too, like installing drivers for a wifi printer yesterday, etc. So I don’t know what might have changed in the interim to cause the problem. However, I seem to have solved the problem by doing the following things. I don’t know if all of them are necessary, but now my MAMP is working again.
1. In Mac’s system preferences -> security -> firewall, I added MAMP to the list of applications to “Allow incoming connections”
2. The foregoing step didn’t get MAMP working by itself. So, next, in MAMP, I went to preferences -> ports, where I changed the Apache port from 8888 to 80. That still didn’t get MAMP working, but, I was no longer getting the error message Brady described (i.e., that Safari couldn’t fine the server “localhost”). Instead I got a message to the effect that Safari couldn’t find the file “MAMP,” which I suppose was progress because it looked like Safari was at least finding the server.
3. Next, I went back to MAMP -> preferences -> ports, and changed the Apache port back to 8888. Then, voila, MAMP started working fine, and has been working fine for the rest of today.
I don’t know what went wrong initially or why the foregoing steps fixed the problem. I suspect all of the foregoing steps weren’t necessary. Perhaps it would have been sufficient simply to go to MAMP’s preferences -> ports and reset the Apache port from 8888 back to 8888.
-Matt
December 25th, 2008 at 10:33 pmAndré
Matt, thank you for this. My MAMP installation just started giving me exactly the same error message. For me, simply changing the web server port to something else got it working again.
December 26th, 2008 at 9:33 pm