Apache/PHP/MySQL/Front Page/OpenSSL Server on Slackware Linux

Van, van@dedserius.com

Updated Sunday August 01, 2010 7:13:32 PM

This document is about building a multipurpose webserver that will support dynamic web content via the PHP scripting language, integrated with support for the MySQL database, secure transmission of data based on Open SSL, and M$ Frontpage Server Extensions.

This document is not derived from the official Mini-HOWTO written by Marcus Faure, marcus@faure.de, which can be found as Linux Apache SSL PHP/FI frontpage mini-HOWTO  This document serves as an instruction set for those not interested in the pre-rolled subsets of Apache-PHP, Apache-SSL, or Apache-FP you can find easily from any major rpm-type Linux distributor (i.e.:  Red Hat, Caldera Open Linux, Turbo-Linux).

The instructions here, will be most useful to those running BSD-style Linux/UNIX servers who have access to a good GNU compiler and the Internet. 

Introduction

I began publishing Internet content at Van's Home on the servers at Alliance Network running on an apache-1.something-or-other.x in 1995.  The only thing I could do on that box of any dynamic nature was run some cron jobs under my shell account that would grep the access_log for hits to my site and write it to an html file somewhere in my public_html directory.

Times have certainly changed, and, designing dynamic web-content became a whole lot easier when Rasmus Lerdorf came out with PHP-FI in 1995 at Apache version 1.0.x.  It evolved from a hit counter Rasmus wrote to determine the amount of activity being generated from his on-line resumé, and, as others learned of it and asked for more features, evolved into Personal Home Page Tools, which later became Personal Home Page Construction Kit, PHP-FI, PHP3, and, now PHP4.

I'll go into what each of these things above are, what they do for you, and, why you might want them shortly, but, basically, this HOWTO was originally written because putting all the things together correctly to get the server configured as the title implies was not easy.  It's become easier since 1998, when I was running PHP-FI-2.0, but, the level of activity to this page seems to indicate  it's still not a walk in the park.

The ultimate goal of this exercise is to have a Linux/UNIX server configured with the Apache Web server, integrated with PHP and having support for MySQL, has https encryption support via OpenSSL, and, allows web developers for applications running on it to use Visual InterDev Studio, or FrontPage98/2000 for Windows to develop those applications.  Now a little on what each of these are.

Apache

The web server that runs 60% of the Internet was developed from the NCSA httpd server with it's first official public release (0.6.2) of the Apache server in April 1995.  The name comes from A PAtCHy, which indicates it's basically a patched-together server and implies how extensible it is.  It's open source code allows for third parties to add virtually anything they wish to the existing web server functionality it already offers. 

You probably wouldn't be reading this document if you didn't have a need and/or interest in running a web server on your intranet, or on the Internet for some reason.  The motivation to run Apache over other types of web servers is probably cost:  it is free, as in beer.  It costs you absolutely nothing to download, install and make money from services provided by the Apache server.  There are other alternatives, however, discussing them is beyond the scope of this document.  What the Apache server can do for you is enable your Linux/UNIX machine to serve web content to browser-based applications for one, or many Internet domains, and gives you the flexibility to put it together in a way in any specialized way you deem fit for your web application needs.  Out of the box, the Apache server is fine for delivering static content.  The purpose of this document would imply that you're looking for more dynamic web-serving facilities.

PHP4

PHP (Professional Home Page) scripting language enables easily coded dynamic applications to be created with the Apache server.  There are more and more PHP applications being developed every day.  It's an alternative to writing CGI or Perl to get your web pages to do dynamic things.  It's currently in use by 37.82% of those sites running Apache.  To be fair, there is another option for writing dynamic web applications, and these options are provided with the Microsoft IIS4/5 Internet Server running ASP (Active Server Pages).  But, as PHP's popularity continues to increase, and the OSS (Open Source Software) applications continue to be contributed back to the community, and, developer's continue to build their PHP coding skills, we can expect PHP to be at the fore-front of dynamic web-based application toolkits for several years to come.  

PHP has evolved a great deal since it's initial inception, and, has undergone 3 full code rewrites.  This HOWTO, began with PHP-3.0.6 and has kept current within the PHP-3.0.x tree, and, has not evolved to PHP4 for a reason.  Specifically, it was due to lack of gd1.3 support.  GD is the gif development library created by Thomas Boutell  and discontinued gif support at version 1.6.  Also, gd1.3 is no longer available anywhere on the Internet, due to licensing changes.  Some of the applications on DedSerius.com require the GD support, and, I still use it.  I've attempted to do similar things with the built in GD-1.8 support for PHP that provides png and jpeg support, but, have not found it's performance to be adequate for a production server with the types of image-creation applications deployed here.  If you don't need such applications, go with the native gd support for PHP.  Otherwise, you can e-mail me, and, I'll send you a copy of gd1.3.

I've been able to get PHP4 to compile with gd1.3 on both FreeBSD and Linux, so, this HOWTO now incorporates that change.  The performance and feature advantages in running PHP4 over PHP3 are definitely worth it, so, unless you have some compelling reason to stay with PHP3, I highly recommend the more current version.

MySQL

Monty Widenius extended msql and created the first release in 1995 as MySQL-????.

Steps 

Follow these links in the order they should be installed...

Step

OpenSSL Steps (Optional) {coming soon}

Background:

While not the "Official" how-to, this site has taken significant enough traffic over the past year, that I felt it only fair to make it current.  I put this site together because I was running Front-Page 98 extensions on a Red Hat box for a client I was doing y2k work for.  I'm not very fond of Red Hat as a server, although it does have it's merits.  My preference is Slack, and, I seem to be in good company

While it was fairly trivial to get the patches applied on a Red Hat box, that's to be expected.  If you're running Red Hat and don't want to put anything special in your web-server, you can simply get the apache-fp-patched server from Ready To Run Software, or Microsoft, and, be done with it.  If you want to read the archived version of this How-To, it's right here.  Again, if you don't need SSL support, you'll save quite a bit of time, if you follow the instructions right here.   

But, I realize your time is limited, and, you'd like to get down to the (./configure && make && make install)s, so, here you are.  (Note:  All links open up a new window.  I find it more useful to have several windows open than to have to re-navigate to lost links.  If you want to close one, it's trivial to do so.) 

 

Install MySQL:

Let me know if this worked for you.  -- van