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Set Up Apache on Mac Sierra 10.12

· 3 min read

Here's the how-to guide to set up Apache on Mac Sierra 10.12.6. It's more involving than just serving up a http server from a local directory, which can be done with python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8080 (for Python 2.7) or php -S <adddres>:<port> (for PHP 5.4).

Make a copy of the critical Apache configuration file first, before modifying it

sudo cp /etc/apache2/httpd.conf /etc/apache2/http.conf.bak

Uncomment several lines in the Apache configuration file http.conf

sudo vim /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Enter into Edit Mode. To enable PHP, change

#LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

into

LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

Might as well enable Perl. Change

#LoadModule perl_module libexec/apache2/mod_perl.so

into

LoadModule perl_module libexec/apache2/mod_perl.so

To enable personal website, change

#LoadModule userdir_module libexec/apache2/mod_userdir.so

into

LoadModule userdir_module libexec/apache2/mod_userdir.so

and also

#Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-userdir.conf

into

Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-userdir.conf

Lastly, grant permission by changing

<Directory />
	AllowOverride none
	Require all none
</Directory>

to

<Directory />
	AllowOverride none
	Require all granted
</Directory>

Save the httpd.conf file and exit.

Open the file that was just enabled

sudo vim /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-userdir.conf

Uncomment Line 16 by changing

#Include /private/etc/apache2/users/*.conf

to

Include /private/etc/apache2/users/*.conf

Mac's Lion and later versions no longer create a personal web site by default. To create one manually,

mkdir ~/Sites
echo "<html><body><h1>My Awesome Site Works!</h1></body></html>" > ~/Sites/index.html.en

Then create a user configuration file for Apache, first figure out what is your username:

whoami
sudo vim /etc/apache2/users/<your short user name>.conf

Copy and paste the following content into the new file

<Directory "/Users/<your user name>/Sites/">
	AddLanguage en .en
	AddHandler perl-script .pl
	PerlHandler ModPerl::Registry
	Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks ExecCGI
	AllowOverride None
	Require host localhost
</Directory>

To check if the Apache configuration is valid,

apachectl configtest

If the command returns Syntax OK then Apache is good to go.

Turn on the Apache httpd service

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist

In browser, open this

http://localhost/

It should say:

#It works!

Check if the user's Site directory is also open for business (xxx = your user name)

http://localhost/~xxx

Create a PHP info file with

echo "<?php echo phpinfo(); ?>" > ~/Sites/info.php

Check this page to verify that PHP is running

http://localhost/~xxx/info.php

Here's the result

Set Up Apache on Mac Sierra 10.12

Create a similar info file for Perl

echo "print \$ENV{MOD_PERL} . qq{\n};" >  ~/Sites/info.pl

Check this page to verify that Perl is running

http://localhost/~xxx/info.pl

Here's the result

Set Up Apache on Mac Sierra 10.12

That's it! To restart Apache with additional changes to the configuration

sudo apachectl graceful or sudo apachectl restart

Buy me a coffee ☕