XAMPP – All in one web server Installation and Configuration in Debian

XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use – just download, extract and start.

XAMPP Supported Platforms

a version for Linux systems (tested for Ubuntu, SuSE, RedHat, Mandrake and Debian),

a version for Windows 98, NT, 2000, 2003 and XP,

a beta version for Solaris SPARC (developed and tested under Solaris 8),
and a beta version for MacOS X.

This MacOSX and Solaris versions of XAMPP are still in the first steps of development. Use at you own risk!

XAMPP for Linux Packages

The distribution for Linux systems (tested for SuSE, RedHat, Mandrake and Debian) contains: Apache, MySQL, PHP & PEAR, Perl,ProFTPD, phpMyAdmin, OpenSSL, GD, Freetype2, libjpeg, libpng, gdbm, zlib, expat, Sablotron, libxml, Ming, Webalizer, pdf class, ncurses, mod_perl, FreeTDS, gettext, mcrypt, mhash, eAccelerator, SQLite and IMAP C-Client.

Install XAMPP in Debian

First you need to download the latest version of XAMPP from here .At the time of writing this article XAMPP version is 1.5.5a.

wget http://kent.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/xampp/xampp-linux-1.5.5a.tar.gz

Now you should be having xampp-linux-1.5.5a.tar.gz file in your downloaded location

Go to a Linux shell and login as root:

$su –

Extract the downloaded archive file to /opt

#tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.5.5a.tar.gz -C /opt

XAMPP is now installed below the /opt/lampp directory.

Start XAMPP Server

To start XAMPP simply Use the following command

#/opt/lampp/lampp start

Starting XAMPP 1.5.5a…
LAMPP: Starting Apache…
LAMPP: Starting MySQL…
LAMPP started.

Test Your XAMPP Installation

OK, that was easy but how can you check that everything really works? Just type in the following URL at your favourite web browser:

http://localhost

or

http://serveripaddress

XAMPP Security Configuration

XAMPP is not meant for production use but only for developers in a development environment. The way XAMPP is configured is to be open as possible and allowing the developer anything he/she wants. For development environments this is great but in a production environment it could be fatal.

Here a list of missing security in XAMPP:

The MySQL administrator (root) has no password.

The MySQL daemon is accessible via network.

ProFTPD uses the password “lampp” for user “nobody”.

PhpMyAdmin is accessible via network.

Examples are accessible via network.

MySQL and Apache running under the same user (nobody).

To fix most of the security weaknesses simply call the following command

#/opt/lampp/lampp security

It starts a small security check and makes your XAMPP installation more secure.

Switching between PHP4 and PHP5

Because such very new versions like PHP 5 always should be handled with care XAMPP team decided to include both current versions of PHP into XAMPP since version 1.4.7: PHP 5.x and PHP 4.x. If you find out your PHP application doesn’t work with PHP 5 you will be able to switch back easily to PHP 4.

By the following command you can switch “back” to PHP 4.x

#/opt/lampp/lampp php4

And with the following command you can switch back to PHP 5.x

#/opt/lampp/lampp php5

If you forgot which version of PHP is in use simply use phpinfo() or call this command

#/opt/lampp/lampp phpstatus

Start And Stop XAMPP Server Services

start

Starts XAMPP.

stop

Stops XAMPP.

restart

Stops and starts XAMPP.

startapache

Starts only the Apache.

startssl

Starts the Apache SSL support. This command activates the SSL support permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future SSL will stay activated.

startmysql

Starts only the MySQL database.

startftp

Starts the ProFTPD server. Via FTP you can upload files for your web server (user “nobody”, password “lampp”). This command activates the ProFTPD permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future FTP will stay activated.

stopapache

Stops the Apache.

stopssl

Stops the Apache SSL support. This command deactivates the SSL support permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future SSL will stay deactivated.

stopmysql

Stops the MySQL database.

stopftp

Stops the ProFTPD server. This command deactivates the ProFTPD permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future FTP will stay deactivated.

security

Starts a small security check programm.

For example: To start Apache with SSL support simply type in the following command (as root)

#/opt/lampp/lampp startssl

You can also access your Apache server via SSL under https://localhost or https://serveripaddress

Important Configuration Files And Directories

opt/lampp/bin/ – The XAMPP commands home. /opt/lampp/bin/mysql calls for example the MySQL monitor.

/opt/lampp/htdocs/ – The Apache DocumentRoot directory.

/opt/lampp/etc/httpd.conf – The Apache configuration file.

/opt/lampp/etc/my.cnf – The MySQL configuration file.

/opt/lampp/etc/php.ini – The PHP configuration file.

/opt/lampp/etc/proftpd.conf – The ProFTPD configuration file. (since 0.9.5)

/opt/lampp/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php – The phpMyAdmin configuration file.

Stopping XAMPP

To stop XAMPP server use the following command

#/opt/lampp/lampp stop

You should now see:

Stopping LAMPP 1.5.5a…
LAMPP: Stopping Apache…
LAMPP: Stopping MySQL…
LAMPP stopped.

And XAMPP for Debian Linux is stopped.

Uninstall XAMPP

To uninstall XAMPP just use the following command

#rm -rf /opt/lampp

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