XAMPP FAQs for Mac OS X

What is the difference between XAMPP for OS X and XAMPP-VM?

XAMPP for OS X is a native installer for OS X. It installs Apache, PHP and other XAMPP components directly on your OS X system, in the /Applications/XAMPP folder.
XAMPP-VM is a virtual machine for OS X. It includes Apache, PHP and other XAMPP components and runs them in a Linux-based virtual machine on your OS X system.

For more information, refer to the blog post at https://www.apachefriends.org/blog/new_xampp_20170628.html.

How do I install XAMPP for Mac OS X?

To install XAMPP, follow these steps:

Open the DMG-Image.
Double-click the image to start the installation process.

That's all. XAMPP is now installed below the /Applications/XAMPP directory.

Does XAMPP include MySQL or MariaDB?

Since XAMPP 5.5.30 and 5.6.14, XAMPP ships MariaDB instead of MySQL. The commands and tools are the same for both.

How do I start XAMPP?

To start XAMPP simply open XAMPP Control and start Apache, MySQL and ProFTPD. The name of the XAMPP Control is "manager-osx".

How do I stop XAMPP?

To stop XAMPP simply open XAMPP Control and stop the servers. The name of the XAMPP Control is "manager-osx".

How can I test that everything worked?

Type in the following URL in a web browser:

http://localhost

You should see the XAMPP start page, as shown below.

Is XAMPP production ready?

XAMPP is not meant for production use but only for development environments. XAMPP is configured to be open as possible to allow 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 "daemon".

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

sudo /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/xampp security

This will launch a small security check to make the XAMPP installation secure.

What is the meaning of the error messages I see when starting XAMPP?

You may get several error messages while starting XAMPP:

LAMPP-Apache is already running. An Apache daemon is already running.

The LAMPP startup script did not start XAMPP-Apache because there is an Apache instance already running. To start XAMPP properly, first you have to stop this daemon.

LAMPP-MySQL is already running. A MySQL daemon is already running.

This is mostly due to the same reasons as the above error. The LAMPP startup script found a MySQL daemon already running on your system. To start LAMPP properly, you have to stop this daemon first.

Apache doesn't seem to start. What can I do?

This error can exist for multiple reasons. Apache displays this error under several circumstances. To find the exact reason, you have to do some research:

tail -2 /Applications/XAMPP/logs/error_log

If you get any error messages visit our community pages for help.

How can I make my XAMPP installation more secure?

By default, XAMPP has no passwords set and it is not recommended to run XAMPP with this configuration as it is accessible to others.

Simply type the following command (as root) to start a simple security check:

sudo /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/xampp security

Now you should see the following dialog on your screen:

XAMPP: Quick security check... XAMPP: MySQL is accessable via network. XAMPP: Normaly that's not recommended. Do you want me to turn it off? [yes] yes XAMPP: Turned off. XAMPP: Stopping MySQL... XAMPP: Starting MySQL... XAMPP: The MySQL/phpMyAdmin user pma has no password set!!! XAMPP: Do you want to set a password? [yes] yes XAMPP: Password: ****** XAMPP: Password (again): ****** XAMPP: Setting new MySQL pma password. XAMPP: Setting phpMyAdmin's pma password to the new one. XAMPP: MySQL has no root passwort set!!! XAMPP: Do you want to set a password? [yes] yes XAMPP: Write the passworde somewhere down to make sure you won't forget it!!! XAMPP: Password: ****** XAMPP: Password (again): ****** XAMPP: Setting new MySQL root password. XAMPP: Setting phpMyAdmin's root password to the new one. XAMPP: The FTP password for user 'nobody' is still set to 'lampp'. XAMPP: Do you want to change the password? [yes] yes XAMPP: Password: ****** XAMPP: Password (again): ****** XAMPP: Reload ProFTPD... XAMPP: Done.

(1) Setting a password will protect the XAMPP demo pages (http://localhost/xampp/) using this password. The user name is 'lampp'!

After running this command, your XAMPP installation should be more secure.

How do I activate the OCI8/Oracle extension for PHP?

To activate the OCI8/Oracle extension for PHP please execute the following command:

sudo /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lampp oci8

The following dialog will start:

Please enter the path to your Oracle or Instant Client installation: [/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/instantclient-11.2.0.3.0] installing symlinks... patching php.ini... OCI8 add-on activation likely successful. LAMPP: Stopping Apache with SSL... LAMPP: Starting Apache with SSL...

The extension should now be active.

How do I enable access to phpMyAdmin from the outside?

In the basic configuration of XAMPP, phpMyAdmin is accessible only from the same host that XAMPP is running on, at http://127.0.0.1 or http://localhost.

IMPORTANT: Enabling external access for phpMyAdmin in production environments is a significant security risk. You are strongly advised to only allow access from localhost. A remote attacker could take advantage of any existing vulnerability for executing code or for modifying your data.

To enable remote access to phpMyAdmin, follow these steps:

Edit the xamppfiles/etc/extra/httpd-xampp.conf file in your XAMPP installation directory.
Within this file, find the lines below.
Alias /phpmyadmin "/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/phpmyadmin" <Directory "/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/phpmyadmin"> AllowOverride AuthConfig Require local
Then replace 'Require local' with 'Require all granted'.

Alias /phpmyadmin "/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/phpmyadmin" <Directory "/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/phpmyadmin"> AllowOverride AuthConfig Require all granted

Restart the Apache server using the XAMPP control panel.

Where are the main XAMPP configuration files?

The main XAMPP configuration files are located as follows:

Apache configuration file: /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/httpd.conf, /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/extra/httpd-xampp.conf
PHP configuration file: /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/php.ini
MySQL configuration file: /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/my.cnf
ProFTPD configuration file: /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/proftpd.conf

How do I send email with XAMPP?

To send email with XAMPP, use the PEAR Mail and Net_SMTP packages, which allow you to send email using an external SMTP account (such as a Gmail account). Follow these steps:

Install the Mail and Net_SMTP PEAR modules: pear install Net_SMTP Mail Note that if these packages are already installed in your system you see the messages below when executing that command: Ignoring installed package pear/Net_SMTP Ignoring installed package pear/Mail Nothing to install
Create the following example script in your "htdocs" directory to send an email: <?php require_once "Mail.php"; $from = "your-gmail-username@gmail.com"; $to = 'recipients@example.com'; $host = "ssl://smtp.gmail.com"; $port = "465"; $username = 'your-gmail-username@gmail.com'; $password = 'your-gmail-password'; $subject = "test"; $body = "test"; $headers = array ('From' => $from, 'To' => $to,'Subject' => $subject); $smtp = Mail::factory('smtp', array ('host' => $host, 'port' => $port, 'auth' => true, 'username' => $username, 'password' => $password)); $mail = $smtp->send($to, $headers, $body); if (PEAR::isError($mail)) { echo($mail->getMessage()); } else { echo("Message successfully sent!\n"); } ?>
Remember to replace the dummy values shown with your actual Gmail address and account password. If you don't plan to use Gmail's SMTP server, replace the SMTP host details with appropriate values for your organization or ISP's SMTP server.
Execute the script by browsing to it using your Web browser. You should see a notification that the message was successfully sent, and the message should be delivered to the recipient email address.

How do I backup/restore my XAMPP system?

WARNING: The backup and restore functionality is still under development and may not work correctly.

You can create the backup by calling:

sudo /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/xampp backup

sudo /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/xampp backup secret

Where "secret" is your MySQL root password. This command will create the following output:

Backing up databases... Backing up configuration, log and htdocs files... Calculating checksums... Building final backup file... Backup finished. Take care of /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/backup/xampp-backup-22-01-14.sh

The file /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/backup/xampp-backup-22-01-14.sh (in the example above) contains your backup data. Move or copy this file to a safe place.

On the new machine you need the same version of XAMPP as on your original/source machine.

sudo sh xampp-backup-22-01-14.sh

You should see something like this:

Checking integrity of files... Restoring configuration, log and htdocs files... Checking versions... Installed: XAMPP 1.4.2 Backup from: XAMPP 1.4.2 Restoring MySQL databases... Restoring MySQL user databases... Backup complete. Have fun! You may need to restart XAMPP to complete the restore.

That's all. Keep in mind that it's a beta feature.

OS X Frequently Asked Questions