[LINK] RFI: Installing a Dev Environment on Mac OSX 10.4

Roger Clarke Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
Mon Feb 21 08:50:57 AEDT 2011


This is another of my dumb-bum requests for leads on a technical matter.

I guess it's justifiable on this list in that it underlines how even 
Macs have become appliances.  By that I mean that installation of 
even a quite mainstream development environment requires the user to 
get in under the bonnet, pull out a whole pile of spanners (and maybe 
even a hammer), and rummage through old bookshops trying to find a 
couple of old manuals.

Leads and advice much appreciated, thanks!

________________________________________________________________________


Problem Definition

I have a short-term need to be able to run some development tools on 
my ancient Mac G5, under Mac OSX 10.4.11.  (That's the dead-end 
version of the OS, using the old PowerPC chip, which is some years 
behind the current version).

I need:
-   Apache 2
-   MySQL at least 5.1
-   PHP 5.x, preferably 5.3


Problem Analysis

10.4.11 has old versions of Apache and PHP installed, and no MySQL.

I've tried to find out from Apple sites how to go about upgrades and 
installations.  But Apple sites seem to be a waste of space.

The answers I've found from mutual-help sites have been handy, but it 
appears to require very careful work to achieve what I'm after.

OTOH, MAMP seems to be designed to do precisely what I want.

My concerns are:
(1)  MAMP is naturally targeted at current 10.6, but *says* it only
      requires 10.4 or above.  Does it work on 10.4?
(2)  In particular, does it over-write any files in-place?
      If it does, then it *might* affect current performance (although
      I don't think either Apache or PHP are currently used), and it
      would prevent an uninstall function working properly

Any leads or advice would be much appreciated!


________________________________________________________________________

MAMP Info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAMP
http://www.mamp.info/en/index.html
http://www.mamp.info/en/documentation/faq.html
http://www.mamp.info/en/downloads/index.html
http://www.mamp.info/en/documentation/index.html

MAMP 1.9.4 (since 26 Oct 2010) contains:
-   Apache 2.0.63
-   MySQL 5.1.44
-   PHP 5.2.13 & 5.3.2

________________________________________________________________________

Apple Info

At http://developer.apple.com/
it appears that there may be nothing to support development under 
10.4, because Apple's focus is entirely on 10.6.  But I'd have to 
enrol and authenticate (and pay $99 - fair enough), in order to find 
out

At http://www.apple.com/support/tiger/
     Discussions find nothing for 'apache' or 'webserver'
http://diymacserver.com/installing-apache/
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20051214031718251
http://switch.richard5.net/isp-in-a-box-v2/installing-apache-on-mac-os-x/

________________________________________________________________________

Macworld Info

The most relevant 'Hints' are quite old:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20071030153912813&query=MySQL

OSX *current* version comes:
-   with Apache 2 installed, ?and enabled by default
-   with PHP installed, but disabled by default
-   without MySQL
-   but with PHP compiled with support for MySQL

So, **even on 10.6**, the following steps are needed:
-   enable PHP
-   find, download and install MySQL
-   fiddle with the configs - possibly quite substantially
-   turn web-sharing on (and think about resulting vulnerabilities)

**On 10.4**, it's first necessary to work out how to install current 
versions of Apache 2 and PHP, and to do so without affecting the 
device's existing functions, and in such a way that the new versions 
can be uninstalled if necessary.  And, after that, all of the steps 
listed for 10.6 would still need to be performed.

________________________________________________________________________


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University



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