OSX 10.8+ | Apache | PHP | Dropbox | VirtualHosts | symlinks | php

NOTE: there are a number of things that will stuff up your machine if you do not know what you are doing, so please be careful. I do not tell you how to take a backup of the files you are changing, so please take a copy backup of the file before you start hacking with the below, and make sure you know how to go back if things go wrong.

I have been needing to do this on a number of OSX machines, and I need to look it up every time. Most sites do part of what I need, however I thought that I would put it all in one spot.

Step 1. Create virtual website folder inside of Dropbox

In my configuration, I want to synchronise my websites across machines so that I can work the same on multiple machines. So my website folder is in ~/DropBox/Development

cd ~/DropBox/Development
mkdir newsite (I called mine stg)

Step 2. Setup a folder to manage apache and logs across machines

I use Dropbox to keep my work sync'd across machines, so I want to keep my logs all in one place across machines.

In my Dropbox, directory, I set up a folder called apache2conf and then set up a folder per machine under it. So on the machine I am using is named "Little iMac", so I have a folder:

mkdir ~/Dropbox/apache2conf
mkdir ~/Dropbox/apache2conf/littleimac

Inside this folder, I then create the following:

mkdir ~/Dropbox/apache2conf/littleimac/extra
mkdir ~/Dropbox/apache2conf/littleimac/logs

The extra folder contains our vhosts file and our logs directory will hold the log files for each virtual site on this machine

Step 3. Creating the vhosts file

The vhosts.conf file is where you set up the specifics of your virtual sites. It is a subservient file (or an include) to Apache's main configuration file called httpd.conf. We will create the vhosts file that we want and then update httpd.conf to include it (and start using it)

So instead of starting from scratch on the vhosts.conf file, I will copy the standard one on my OSX machine.

cd ~/Dropbox/apache2conf/littleimac/extra
cp /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf .

You should now have a httpd-vhosts.conf file in your extra directory, and we can edit it using vi or nano if you find it easier.

sudo vi httpd-vhosts.confpassword: <your user password>
#   
# Virtual Hosts   
#   
# If you want to maintain multiple domains/hostnames on your   
# machine you can setup VirtualHost containers for them. Most configurations   
# use only name-based virtual hosts so the server doesn't need to worry about   
# IP addresses. This is indicated by the asterisks in the directives below.   
#   
# Please see the documentation at   
#    
# for further details before you try to setup virtual hosts.   
#   
# You may use the command line option '-S' to verify your virtual host   
# configuration.   
     
#   
# Use name-based virtual hosting.   
#   
NameVirtualHost *:80   
     
# Setup permissions for all folders under the base folder   
  
   Options Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews  
   AllowOverride All  
   Order allow,deny  
   Allow from all  
   
   
# RETAIN LOCALHOST   
# For http://localhost point it at your document root, however put logs inside the custom folder we setup    
    
   DocumentRoot /Users/Douglas/DropBox/Development   
   ServerName localhost    
   CustomLog "/Users/Douglas/Dropbox/apache2conf/littleimac/logs/default-access_log" combined    
   ErrorLog "/Users/Douglas/Dropbox/apache2conf/littleimac/logs/default-error_log"   
    
     
# VHOST local.stg   
   
   DocumentRoot "/Users/Douglas/DropBox/Development/local.stg"   
   ServerName local.stg   
   ErrorLog "/Users/Douglas/Dropbox/apache2conf/littleimac/logs/local.stg-error_log"   
   CustomLog "/Users/Douglas/Dropbox/apache2conf/littleimac/logs/local.stg-access_log" common

Notice a few things above:

  • The log directories are the apache2conf folder, and named appropriately for the site.
  • The permissions will work no matter what the username you are using on the current machine
  • You will need to update this file depending on the user and machine. This is why this file will be save in the apache2conf folder under a machine name folder. i.e. on littleimac my user is Douglas

Step 3. Updating httpd.conf to include and activate the vhosts file

sudo vi /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf
Inside vim editor search for vhosts by typing /vhosts and hitting enter

You should be at a line that looks like this:

# Virtual hosts
#Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

Copy the #Include line below this line. Then remove the # in front of the Include statement so that the vhosts file that you set up already is enabled. So it should look like the following:

# Virtual hosts#Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
Include /Users/Douglas/Dropbox/apache2conf/littleimac/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

So now your apache knows to include (and activate) the vhosts file that you setup above.

Step 4. Updating host file

You now need to edit the host file so that your computer will know that your new site exists locally on your machine rather than on the web. You will need to use sudo, as it is a protected file.

sudo vi /private/etc/hosts
 ##  
 # Host Database  
 #  
 # localhost is used to configure the loopback interface  
 # when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.  
 ##  
 127.0.0.1           localhost  
 255.255.255.255     broadcasthost  
 ::1                 localhost   
 fe80::1%lo0         localhost

You need to add a record at the bottom that points to your local machine when local.stg is requested

127.0.0.1       local.stg

Step 5. Updating permissions in the Dropbox folders so that apache can access them.

Permission issues are the biggest problem from my experience with Apache and Dropbox and symlinks.

First of all we want to use a group that will have access to sites on your local machine, however not necessarily give the apache user root access.

One way of doing this is to add the apache user (_www) to the staff group that is setup for all normal users. This will give _www elevated access to areas where group users are allowed. Not great, and there will definitely be better solutions out there, however I just want to get this going, and it is my development machine (not a production box).

The second thing we need to realise is that as far as I can tell (trial and error), apache needs access all the way up the tree to the root of the directory. I am not sure if this is correct, however this is what I needed to do in order for it to work.

Change the permissions from the /Users/ folder up to your site folder.

So as a memory hit 7 is rwx, 5 is r_x and 4 is r__. So we start by making sure that the group staff has access down from /Users

sudo chmod 740 /Users
sudo chmod 740 /Users/Douglas
chmod 740 /Users/Douglas/Dropbox
chmod -R 750 /Users/Douglas/Dropbox/Development

The recursive -R makes the staff group rwx from Development down to the end of the folder branch.

Now next you need to add _www user to the staff group, so that it will pick up this access.

sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a _www -t user staff

So now the permissions should be set appropriately, we need to restart apache.

Step 6. Turning on php

There is one more step to turn on php if you need it.

sudo vi /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf
Inside vim editor search for php5 by typing /php5 and hitting enter

Remove the # in front of LoadModule in this line.

#LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

Step 7. Restarting apache and cross fingers

sudo

That should be it. Good luck.

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