Install Apache Web Server

2025-02-11, Tue

This post records process of installing Apache HTTP Server.

1. on Debian GNU/Linux

The whole process of installing Apache server along with PHP is quite smooth with following command: 

apt-get install apache2 apache2-doc php

Debian puts apach2 configs in customized directory /etc/apache2/, with nicely categoried *-available and *-enabled sub-directories for, well, all configs and enabled configs.

To manage the httpd service, systemctl is preferred to apache2ctl. Environment variables like APACHE-RUN-USER and APACHE-RUN-GROUP are defined in /etc/apache2/envvars, while error log could be found in /var/log/aapche2/error.log.

1.1. Integrate with PHP

Things just work out of the box, which means there is no extra config needed to be done before PHP page shows up correctly in browser. That been said, be aware that Apache do need execution permisson1 on the directory path when one is provided as symbolic link in DocumentRoot. i.e. if /var/www/html is the DocumentRoot, and a symbolic link is created by 

cd /var/ww/html/
ln -s /path/to/other/place/ other-alias

Ensure that /path, /path/to, /path/to/other and /path/to/other/place all have proper execution available assigned for the Apache run user. When things didn't work as expected, instead of scratching head and guessing randomly, go check the error log first.

2. on macOS

The offical Apache HTTP Server site2 doesn't provide binary build for macOS, so it could be either installed through third party package manager (e.g. Homebrew, MacPorts) or compiled from source code. Since there's no recommended way on the project site, I chose to compile from source code.

The first step is to install Apache Portable Runtime (APR)3, along with APR-util. After it's compiled & installed, go to httpd source directory and run 

./configure --with-apr=/usr/local/apr

before continuing on the usual make & make install process. /usr/local/apr is the default installation path of APR, adjust it accordingly if it's changed.

Funny experience: I tried to run ./configure --with-apr /usr/local/apr first but failed, only to realize that it is shell script being executed here – instead of the usual command.

After installation complete, use apachectl to manage the httpd serivce. Configurations are located in /etc/apache2/, and error logs could be found in /var/log/apache2/error_log.

2.1. Integrate with PHP

Somehow the PHP official site4 has put "Installation on macOS using third-party packages"5 as the first entry – which I assume is the recommended way. So I followed the instruction and used Homebrew to complete installation –only to find that the Apache HTTP Server won't recognize the PHP module installed. i.e. 

apachectl configtest

This command complains the PHP module is not properly signed. A quick online search reveals that libphp.so should be signed by codesign6. (Perhaps I should compile PHP from source anyway.)

After all is settled, ensure proper directory permissions are configured when symbolic links are added into DocumentRoot.

Footnotes:

1

Execution Permission on directory works different from files. To quote Linux file permissions explained from Red Hat Blog: "…(it) allows you to change your working directory (using cd) or pass through this directory on your way to a subdirectory underneath".

2

Apache HTTP Server project https://httpd.apache.org

3

Apache Portal Runtime project https://apr.apache.org

4

PHP official site https://www.php.net

5

PHP Installation on macOS https://www.php.net/manual/en/install.macosx.php

6

How to sign Homebrew PHP module in macOS https://www.simplified.guide/macos/apache-php-homebrew-codesign