How to Install the Joomla Environment on a Local Mac OS X Server

By Seamus Bellamy and Steven Holzner from Joomla! For Dummies, 2nd Edition

XAMPP installs all the tools that Joomla needs to run including the Apache web server, PHP, and MySQL, along with some other tools that will make your life as a Joomla administrator a little easier. XAMPP lays the full groundwork for Joomla; all you’ve got to do is to unzip and install Joomla.

XAMPP is free and can be installed with minimal effort and in just a few minutes. Just select the version for your operating system to go to the correct download page.

To install XAMPP on a Macintosh, follow these steps:

Download the .tar.gz installer file (such as xampp-macosx-0.7.3.tar.gz).
Uncompress the compressed file to get a package (.pkg) file, and double-click that file.
Complete the steps in the installation wizard.
Run the following command in Terminal (from an admin account):
```
        sudo su
```
Enter your password.
Enter the following command:

        tar xfvz xampp-macosx-0.7.3.tar.gz -C /

That’s all you need to do.

To start XAMPP for Mac OS X, enter this command in a Terminal window:

sudo su /Applications/xampp/xamppfiles/mampp start

You should see something like this:

Starting XAMPP for MacOS X 0.7.3 . . .
XAMPP: Starting Apache with SSL (and PHP5) . . .
XAMPP: Starting MySQL . . .
XAMPP: Starting ProFTPD . . .
XAMPP for MacOS X started.
Ready. Apache and MySQL are running.

Now open a browser and navigate to http://localhost. You should see the XAMPP main page.

If problems pop up, check the XAMPP for Mac OS X FAQ page or Using XAMPP on Mac.