ApacheFriends XAMPP makes Apache setup easy

I've been using XAMPP on Windows (which I'm forced to use at work) for a few years. I write a lot of custom PHP stuff to help me with my day job, and I also like to test functions or classes I write before I push it out to production. ApacheFriends XAMPP is an easy way to get a basic Apache installation up and running with some of the most popular add-ons including PHP and MySQL. It installs in OS X and many Linux distributions as well.

While nothing can replace a streamlined, custom-compiled AMP Stack set up just the way you need it, XAMPP affords busy sysadmins (and web developers that don't want to be sysadmins!) the ability to get a functional web dev environment up and running with ease.

Go ahead, give XAMPP a shot!

Sysadmin Sunday: OpenBSD, Apache, MySQL, PHP (OAMP?)

Editor's note: I know, I know.  This is SATURDAY!  But I'm putting this out there for a good reason.  Today is also KC PHP User's Group's first meeting of 2008, and what better way to kick off the KCPUG new year than with some fresh AMP-Stack Content.  So, here we go.  

Last week, I discussed how OpenBSD sysadmins can make their lives a little easier with some software I wrote. This week on Sysadmin Sunday, I'll show you how easy it is to get a decent AMP (Apache, MySQL and PHP) environment up and running on OpenBSD 4.2, which is the current version as of writing.

It used to be that some stuff had to be compiled by hand to make everything work just right, but the package/port guys finally nailed it. With the help of obsd_pkgscripts, OAMP is a breeze. The benefits of running your AMP-driven website atop OpenBSD are many, not the least of which are the facts that it's a minimalistic, secure, and high-performance platform out of the box.

OpenBSD already ships with Apache. It's a patched and tweaked version of Apache, but it's Apache all the same. You're already halfway to OAMP land with OpenBSD and Apache installed out of the box.

First, install the MySQL Server. I obviously chose to use my pkg_get.sh tool for this, but it's not needed.

$ pkg_get.sh mysql-server
Attempting to fetch/install package...
mysql-client-5.0.45: complete
p5-DBD-mysql-3.0008:p5-Net-Daemon-0.39: complete
p5-DBD-mysql-3.0008:p5-PlRPC-0.2018p0: complete
p5-DBD-mysql-3.0008:p5-DBI-1.53: complete
p5-DBD-mysql-3.0008: complete
mysql-server-5.0.45: complete
--- mysql-server-5.0.45 -------------------
You can find detailed instructions on how to install a database
in /usr/local/share/doc/mysql/README.OpenBSD.

Next, that README contains some useful information for more advanced installations and performance, but summarized, follow these instructions. I use sudo, and rarely use the root account. I recommend doing the same.

Create the DB:

-bash-3.2$ sudo /usr/local/bin/mysql_install_db

Start MySQL:

-bash-3.2$ sudo /usr/local/share/mysql/mysql.server start

To make MySQL Start up at boot, add the above mysql startup line to /etc/rc.local without the "sudo" at the beginning (optional but highly recommended). There is a "theoretically correct" start-up snippit on the documentation, but I've found this works just as well.

Set a password for mysql's root user (choose a better one than this):

-bash-3.2$ sudo /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'new-password'

That's pretty much it as far as getting MySQL up and running is concerned. Now we just need to get PHP installed with the MySQL client library...

-bash-3.2$ sudo pkgscripts/pkg_get.sh php5-mysql-
Attempting to fetch/install package...
php5-core-5.2.3: complete
php5-mysql-5.2.3: complete
--- php5-core-5.2.3 -------------------
To finish the install, enable the php5 module with:
/usr/local/sbin/phpxs -s

To enable parsing of PHP scripts, add the following to
/var/www/conf/httpd.conf:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

Copy the config file below into /var/www/conf/php.ini
/usr/local/share/examples/php5/php.ini-recommended

Don't forget that the default OpenBSD httpd is chrooted
into /var/www by default, so you may need to create support
directories such as /var/www/tmp for PHP to work correctly.
--- php5-mysql-5.2.3 -------------------
Enable this module in php.ini using the following command:

/usr/local/sbin/phpxs -a mysql

Then you have to follow the post-install instructions:

-bash-3.2$ sudo /usr/local/sbin/phpxs -s
-bash-3.2$ sudo /usr/local/sbin/phpxs -a mysql

Edit /var/www/conf/httpd.conf and add the below line with the other AddTypes:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

I also recommend since we're going to be running PHP, adding index.php to the DirectoryIndex line:
DirectoryIndex index.html index.php

Save the httpd.conf file.

Now, copy the php.ini file over from the examples:

-bash-3.2-$ sudo cp \
/usr/local/share/examples/php5/php.ini-recommended \
/var/www/conf/php.ini

Now, make sure apache is set to start.
If you plan on keeping all your web-related content content in /var/www, find the httpd_flags line in /etc/rc.conf and change it to httpd_flags=""

If you intend on giving users traditional ~username (public_html) directories, start apache without being chrooted. Chroot is more secure, but it's a royal pain if you want user home-directories on a vanilla OAMP box, and beyond the "quick and dirty OAMP" scope of this article. Find the httpd_flags line in /etc/rc.conf and change it to httpd_flags="-u" to disable chroot if you must.

The above change to httpd_flags will make apache auto-start upon reboot. You can manually start it with apachectl, though:

-bash-3.2$ sudo apachectl start
/usr/sbin/apachectl start: httpd started

Make a phpinfo example php file and move it into the web root.

-bash-3.2$ echo "" > phpinfo.php
-bash-3.2$ sudo mv phpinfo.php /var/www/htdocs/

Then test it out by pointing a browser to your new phpinfo.php file (example: http://10.23.45.67/phpinfo.php ) and you should see output from PHP. If you see a blank screen or just the phpinfo line, something went wrong. Re-check your steps.


There you have it! As a test, I installed Joomla on this system (screen shot below). Joomla is a popular open-source CMS. I unpacked it into /var/www/htdocs/joomla and pointed my browser to it, following all of its instructions. This includes making a database, changing permissions on some of the Joomla files, and modifying some values in php.ini. The installation went off without any problems just like it would on any LAMP box. I'd imagine you'll see similar results with other *AMP packages such as phpMyAdmin, Xoops, and others.

Rickrolling with mod_rewrite

Comic Credit:XKCD

Rickrolling is one of the latest goofy internet pranks, memes, or whatever you want to call it. By strictest definition, to rickroll someone is to send them a link that seems to be for something interesting, but actually takes them to a video of Rick Astley's "Never gonna give you up". These can be via e-mail, instant message, or even discussion forums.

Example of rickroll bait:

Did you see the video of the new spy plane the military is working on?!

Fast forward to today. I find out that some morons have planned to have a little fun with one of the websites that I help with. It's not my site, but run by a client and friend of mine. Not too big of a deal, just some bored teenagers, probably. Not sure what they were up to, but it probably involved lots of forum trolling, trash talking, or spamming. Who knows? I figured I would rickroll these twerps. If they click on the URL they posted in their little forum, they won't get the site they wanted. They will get Rick Astley instead. Meanwhile, the site works fine for everyone else.

In the name of keeping both parties somewhat anonymous, I'll set up something similar on my ExplorerHacks site, which doesn't actually have any real content. If you click on this link to www.explorerhacks.com, you'll get rickrolled. Or, you should. I guess. If you just go to www.explorerhacks.com by typing it into your browser, it should load normally.

In order to do this, I used Mod_Rewrite for apache, and added this to my .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://www\.h-i-r\.net [NC]
RewriteRule .* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU [R]

The first line just initializes the rewrite engine.

The second line checks the HTTP_REFERER server variable to see if it starts with "http://www.h-i-r.net" (It's a regular expression, "^" means "starts with" and the periods have to be escaped with a backslash or else they're treated as wildcard characters) The [NC] simply means "no case" so that the referer URL is case-insensitive.

The third line tells apache what to do. In this case, it replaces the entire url (.*) with a link to the video on YouTube. The code at the end specifies what kind of rewrite. In this case, [R] means that the web server passes an HTTP 302 status, telling the browser that the URL has been temporarily moved. And you just got rickrolled.

Related Links:
Mod_Rewrite Tips site
Regular-Expressions.info (for forming good RegEx rules)
XKCD.com