andrewwatson.net: Installing PHP as a compiled Apache module with PostgreSQL Support

andrewwatson.net › IT › Installation Guides › Installing PHP as a compiled Apache module with PostgreSQL Support

Installing PHP as a compiled Apache module with PostgreSQL Support

Also available as

I normally perform the following su'd as root unless otherwise noted

Note: Requires Apache non-DSO or Apache DSO and PostgreSQL to be already installed

Step 1: make the directory, if it does not already exist, to put the tarball and source tree into

mkdir /usr/local/src/php

Step 2: get the tarball, either from www.php.net or from a local source

download or copy <phpversion>.tar.gz to /usr/local/src/php

Step 3: unzip and untar the tarball

cd /usr/local/src/php
tar zxvf /usr/local/src/php/<phpversion>.tar.gz
cd /usr/local/src/php/<phpversion>

the above will unzip and untar the tarball into the required directory tree

Step 4: configure the makefile ready to compile

./configure --with-apache=/usr/local/src/apache/<apacheversion> \
--with-pgsql=/usr/local/pgsql

with-apache sets Apache support and path to Apache source tree (I think it's the source tree that need to be pointed to, either that or the binary tree which will be /usr/local/apache/<apacheversion>)
with-pgsql sets PostgreSQL support and path to PostgreSQL binary tree

Step 5: do the compile and the install

make && make install

Step 6: re-configure the Apache makefile

cd /usr/local/src/apache/<version> ./configure --verbose \
                 --prefix=/usr/local/apache/<version> \
                 --enable-module=info
                 --activate-module=src/modules/php3/libphp3.a

verbose is enabled just-for-the-hell-of-it™
prefix defines the base directory to install into, e.g. /usr/local/apache/1.3.11 I also usually add php to the end /usr/local/apache/1.3.11_php
enable-module=prefix is again installed just-for-the-hell-of-it™, plus it provides lots of extra exciting info when the server is running
activate-module=src/modules/php3/libphp3.a activates the PHP module and provides the path to the module

Step 7: do the compile and the install again for Apache

make && make install

Step 8: copy the configuration file on to the target system

cd /usr/local/src/php/<phpversion>
cp php3.ini-dist /usr/local/lib/php3.ini

Step 9: edit httpd.conf

cd /usr/local/apache/<apacheversion>/conf
add following to httpd.conf using prefered editor:
AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .php3

the above line is often already entered into httpd.conf but commented out, scan down the file and find it

Step 10: restart Apache

/usr/local/apache/<apacheversion>/bin/apachectl stop /usr/local/apache/<apacheversion>/bin/apachectl start

you should now have a working Apache server with PHP

Step 11: test Apache

telnet <hostname> <port>
HEAD / HTTP/1.0<CR><CR>
Should return a line like following:
Server: Apache/1.3.11 (Unix) PHP/3.0.15

telnet <hostname> <port> where <hostname> is the hostname of the machine Apache & PHP are installed and running on and <port> is the number of the port that Apache is running on, usually 80, but sometime 8080, configurable via httpd.conf

Andrew Watson (email)
Last Modified: Wednesday, 03-May-2006 20:51:48 CEST