The Definitive Guide to Installing Apache2 and PHP4 in Windows

Apache 2 and PHP are popular options for creating interactive websites at very low cost. Installing Apache 2 in Windows is a breeze, but making PHP 4 run seamlessly with Apache 2 requires certain skills.

In the Windows installation section of the PHP 4.3 manual, there is no explanation of how to use PHP with Apache 2, and the section about Apache 2 installation is missing a lot of the information you need. Other installation guides posted online also contain many errors, forcing some installers to resort to trial and error. For example, some people even replace PHP DLLs with DLLs from other PHP versions. OK, in order to save your precious time, we have prepared this most authoritative guide article to help you eliminate all worries.

Use the correct version of Windows

First, let’s talk about compatibility: Apache 2 will not run on Windows 95; it will barely run on Windows 98, but it cannot be used as a service. Starting from version 4.3, PHP no longer supports Windows 95. Therefore, your Windows operating system must be Windows NT, 2000 or XP.

Apache 2: Source code or binary?

If you have Visual C++ 5.0 or higher, or have Microsoft Visual Studio installed, although you can generate Apache based on the source code, please be sure Don't do this. In the Visual Studio IDE, the generation process under Windows is very complicated. Even compiling from the command line is definitely not an easy task. So, unless you like creating makefiles, it's best to get a copy of the Windows Installer binary distribution, which is an .msi file. Only when you know enough about Apache and know what customization operations you want to perform can you consider generating (compiling) Apache yourself.

If you have installed and are running an old version of Apache, you must first stop it and uninstall it before you can start installing the new server. Multiple versions of Apache 2 cannot coexist.

Double-click the Apache 2 .msi file. After agreeing to the license agreement, set the Network Domain and Server Name correctly (if you do not plan to install Apache to a remote computer, then set localhost), enter your email address in the Administrator's Email Address field, and keep the port 80/Service tab The selected state of the option button. If you choose Typical installation in the next dialog box, you can quickly get a working server environment.

Installation Tips

It is recommended to change the default installation directory from C:Program FilesApache Group to C:Apache or other names that comply with the 8.3 file name format. This way, you don't have to add quotes to the Apache installation path every time you enter it in the future.

Wait a moment and the installation wizard will tell you that Apache 2 is successfully installed. The only thing left to do next is to test. Open a browser and visit localhost. You should see the default Apache 2 home page.

You can then delete all sample files in the main web server directory, which are located by default in C:InstallDirectoryApacheApache2htdocs. If there is a ready-made homepage Index.html, please copy it here; in addition, you can also create a blank homepage immediately. For uninitialized HTML, the following code will do:

＜html＞
＜head＞title=default server page＜/head＞
＜body＞Default server page＜/body＞
＜/html＞

Getting Apache 2 ready for PHP

From now on, you will need to install it more manually rather than simply clicking and selecting a few options Done. Get used to it as soon as possible, this is the Apache way. You need to edit the file to set different configuration options; if not done correctly, the changes you make will prevent Apache from loading correctly. If the setting causes an error, the error may be logged to the Apache 2 error log (default is C:InstallDirApache2LogsError.log). But there are only a few that can be recorded like this, and most errors will only be recorded in the Windows event log (Start | Settings | Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Event Viewer).

Sadly, the Windows event log is not a handy tool when debugging your installation setup. A better approach is to test the loading of the Apache server in a command line window so you can see error reports immediately. So, after completing the configuration modifications I'm about to discuss, open a command line window, switch to Apache's binary directory (C:InstallDirApache2bin), and start Apache there.

The Apache configuration file is C:ApacheApache2ConfHttpd.conf and can be edited with any text editor.Find DirectoryIndex and locate the following line:

DirectoryIndex index.html index.html.var # index.php

In order to allow Apache to process PHP pages, delete the comment character (#) and change Into:

DirectoryIndex index.html index.html.var index.php

It also allows the use of .htaccess files in any directory, so please look for AllowOverride in the configuration file and set this Change from None to All. After saving your changes, you can continue to open the file in a text editor because you will need to edit the file again when you install PHP later.

Installing PHP

Although you can download the source code of PHP, like Apache 2, it is best to use the binary distribution package directly. Apache 2 can run PHP programs in two ways: through a CGI interface (calling Php.exe externally), or using a PHP DLL file to run inside Apache. The latter method is faster. Therefore, for each version of PHP, 2 Windows binary distribution packages will be provided. The smaller one is the .msi package, which installs the CGI executable Php.exe, but removes the modules required to run PHP scripts through the Apache DLL. The larger .zip package contains all these things and can be downloaded from the Win32 section of the snaps.php.net website. Once the file is downloaded, unzip it to C:Php (keep the folder name). Unless you are absolutely sure, please also download the PHP manual, which is available in multiple languages.

Configuring Apache 2 to run PHP4

Now comes the most interesting part: perfectly matching Apache and PHP. First, please copy all DLL files in the C:PhpDlls directory to the Windows System directory (%windir%System). Next, look for the section that contains a large number of AddType commands in the Apache configuration file (Httpd.conf), and add the following line yourself:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

Copy C:PhpPhp.ini-recommended to the Windows directory (%windir%), rename it to Php.ini, and open it with a text editor. Edit the three lines that set doc_root, extension_dir and session.save_path to be consistent with those shown below. Be sure to replace InstallDir with the name of your Apache 2 installation directory.

doc_root = c:apacheapache2htdocs
extension_dir = c:phpextensions
session.save_path = c:/temp

Use both forward and backslashes in session.save_path is allowed. The PHP manual claims that these path parameters require a backslash at the end, but this is incorrect. This is not required in PHP 4.3. Also, if C:Temp does not exist, create it yourself.

The next step is to allow Apache to run PHP programs as modules, which requires you to take 2 steps. First, copy C:PhpPhp4ts.dll to the Windows system folder (%windir%System). Find the LoadModule section in Httpd.conf and add the following line yourself:

LoadModule php4_module “c:/php/php4apache2.dll”

If you need to use CGI for some reason To run a PHP program in mode (using Php.exe), please turn the above line into a comment and add the following lines in Httpd.conf:

ScriptAlias /php/ "c:/php/"
Action application/x-httpd-php "/php/php.exe"

Is everything done?

After saving the changes, you need to prove two points in person , to ensure that Apache 2/PHP 4 becomes a perfect pair: can Apache load normally, can it handle PHP pages correctly?

To know whether Apache can load normally, enter the following command in the command line window you have opened:

apache –k start

In addition, if Apache is running, You can restart it with the following command:

apache –k restart

The advantage of starting Apache from the command line is that if an error occurs, Apache will report it immediately. The most common problem you may encounter is that Apache may not be able to load Php4apache2.dll for some reason. If Apache reports this error, please follow the steps described above again to make sure everything is correct.

To know if Apache can handle PHP pages correctly, use your text editor to create a simple PHP page, named Phptest.php, which only contains the following line:

＜?phpinfo(); ?＞

Save the file to the main web server directory (C:InstallDirectoryApacheApache2Htdocs), and use a browser to access http://localhost/phptest.php. If everything is fine, you should see a web page with the PHP logo and a lot of settings and other information. To know whether PHP is currently running through CGI or inside Apache, you can check the environment variable orig_script_name. If PHP is run via CGI, the value of this variable is /Php/Php.exe.If Apache is running PHP scripts as modules, the value of this variable should be /Phptest.php.

Although installing Apache 2 and PHP on Windows is not an easy task, there is no need to cross the river by feeling the stones. Through the instructions in this article, you should be able to quickly set up the best and lowest-cost web development environment in history.

The Definitive Guide to Installing Apache2 and PHP4 in Windows_PHP Tutorial