{"id":161,"date":"2008-11-10T23:18:21","date_gmt":"2008-11-10T17:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/?p=161"},"modified":"2008-11-10T23:18:21","modified_gmt":"2008-11-10T17:48:21","slug":"installing-lighttpd-web-server-in-linux-with-php-and-mysql","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bin-co.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/installing-lighttpd-web-server-in-linux-with-php-and-mysql\/","title":{"rendered":"Installing lighttpd Web Server in Linux with PHP and MySQL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"lighttpd<\/p>\n

After two articles<\/a> on installing Apache<\/a>, lets take a look at installing and configuring lighttpd web server on a linux system<\/strong>. lighttpd<\/a> (pronounced “lighty”) is a web server designed to be secure, fast, standards-compliant and flexible while having a low memory footprint.<\/p>\n

Before installation, a few points to remember. These instruction are not for a production environment – this is for a development environment<\/strong>. To install the software, you need root access<\/strong>. You can get that using this command…<\/p>\n

su -\n[Enter root password]<\/code><\/pre>\n
or by prefixing ‘sudo<\/code>‘ before each command.<\/p>\n
Installing the Server<\/h2>\n
First install lighttpd and PHP – use your distro’s package management(yum, apt-get) system to do this.<\/p>\n
Install lighttpd<\/h3>\n
You can use this command in Red Hat based systems(Fedora, Cent OS, etc.) to install lighttpd. Debian\/Ubuntu systems might the same package name – could someone post the package name of lighttpd in the comments?<\/p>\n
yum install lighttpd lighttpd-fastcgi<\/code><\/pre>\n
\"PHP<\/p>\n
Install PHP<\/h3>\n
If you don’t have PHP, you can install it using the command…<\/p>\n
yum install php php-cli php-common<\/code><\/pre>\n
In Debian\/Ubuntu systems, the command is…<\/p>\n
apt-get install php5-cli php5-common php5-cgi<\/code><\/pre>\n
You can make sure you have php-cgi(needed for working with lighttpd) by running this command…<\/p>\n
php-cgi -v<\/code><\/pre>\n
Installing MySQL<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
If MySQL is not yet installed, use this command to install it…<\/p>\n
yum install mysql-server php-mysql mysql mysql-libs<\/code><\/pre>\n
Debian\/Ubuntu Command…<\/p>\n
apt-get install mysql-client mysql-common mysql-server php5-mysql<\/code><\/pre>\n
Configuring lighttpd<\/h2>\n
lighttpd configuration is done by editing the text file ‘\/etc\/lighttpd\/lighttpd.conf’.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Enable some lighttpd modules<\/strong> by removing the comment character(#) from the beginning of the line. I have enabled the following modules…<\/p>\n
server.modules              = (\n                                \"mod_rewrite\",\n                                \"mod_redirect\",\n                                \"mod_access\",\n                                \"mod_fastcgi\",\n                                \"mod_accesslog\" )\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
Configure lighttpd’s document root<\/strong> – if you already have Apache, I would recommend using the same document root as Apache(applicable for development servers only). <\/p>\n
server.document-root        = \"\/var\/www\/\"<\/code><\/pre>\n
I find it helpful to enable folder listing<\/strong> in my server.<\/p>\n
## virtual directory listings\ndir-listing.activate       = \"enable\"<\/code><\/pre>\n
Turn On FastCGI PHP Support<\/h3>\n
Now, make sure lighttpd works with PHP – first get the path of php-cgi using the command..<\/p>\n
$ whereis php-cgi\nphp-cgi: \/usr\/bin\/php-cgi #Might be different on your system.<\/code><\/pre>\n
Then add the path to the configuration file<\/strong> of lighttpd…<\/p>\n
#### fastcgi module\n## read fastcgi.txt for more info\n## for PHP don't forget to set cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1 in the php.ini\nfastcgi.server             = ( \".php\" =>\n                               ( \"localhost\" =>\n                                 (\n                                   \"socket\" => \"\/tmp\/php.socket\",\n                                   \"bin-path\" => \"\/usr\/bin\/php-cgi\"<\/strong>\n                                 )\n                               )\n                            )<\/code><\/pre>\n
Make sure you uncomment the above lines<\/strong> by removing the ‘#’ characters.<\/p>\n
After you are done, save the file<\/strong>. Time to try out the server.<\/p>\n
Starting the lighttpd Server<\/h2>\n
First stop Apache if it is running…<\/p>\n
\/etc\/init.d\/httpd stop<\/code><\/pre>\n
Now start lighttpd using the command<\/p>\n
\/etc\/init.d\/lighttpd start<\/code><\/pre>\n
Go to your document root(\/var\/www<\/code>) and create a php files called ‘info.php’ and put this code<\/strong> inside it…<\/p>\n
<?php\nphpInfo();<\/code><\/pre>\n
Now fire up a browser and go to localhost<\/a><\/strong> – you should see a file listing page with a \u2018info.php\u2019 in the list. Click on that link – if you see a PHP information page, your web server is setup correctly.<\/p>\n
To make sure MySQL-PHP connection is working, install phpMyAdmin<\/a> – or write a database connection script – whatever is easier for you.<\/p>\n
Related Links<\/h2>\n