Get up and running on MacBook localhost quickly ⚡️

jorgeuos included in category Development

2023-01-12 2023-01-12 715 words 4 minutes

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Easy way to get up and running on MacBook localhost

Sometimes I just want to get started real quickly with a new project. So instead spending hours or even days configuring docker images and so on and instead of repeating everything step-by-step I try to automate and document everything in case I forget what I did, which I do all the time.

Sometimes I need to be able to work without any internet connection e.g. so localhost suits the best for that, so I don’t get stalled by not being able to download new images.

Install Apache with brew

If you haven’t installed Apache with brew, perhaps you want to. I don’t really remember why I do it, but it’s been like that for ages.

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sudo apachectl stop
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist 2>/dev/null
brew install httpd
# Double check you don't have anything running on port 80.
sudo lsof -i :80
brew services start httpd
brew services list

Prepare your local dev env

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mkdir -p /usr/local/var/www/mylocal.dev
echo "My mylocal.dev site works!" > /usr/local/var/www/mylocal.dev/index.html

Add a Vhost file to your local setup

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cd /usr/local/etc/httpd/extra
touch mylocal.dev.conf

For a WP site e.g. or any other php application, copy paste the following into mylocal.dev.conf:

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# You might want to Listen to any other port
# Make sure that you Listen to it too.
# Listen 80
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin you@example.com
    DocumentRoot "/usr/local/var/www/mylocal.dev"

    ServerName mylocal.dev

    <IfModule dir_module>
      DirectoryIndex index.html index.php
    </IfModule>
    <FilesMatch \.php$>
        SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
    </FilesMatch>

    <Files ".ht*">
        # Require all denied
        Require all granted
    </Files>

    <Directory "/usr/local/var/www/mylocal.dev">
      # If you want experiment with some different headers
      # Header set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "mylocal.dev"
      # Header add Access-Control-Allow-Origin "127.0.0.1"
      # Header set Access-Control-Allow-Origin *
      Header set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*"
      Header set Access-Control-Allow-Headers "Content-type"
      Header set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' data:; font-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval' data:; img-src 'self' data:; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval'; connect-src 'self';"

      Options +Indexes +MultiViews +FollowSymLinks
      AllowOverride All
      Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog "/usr/local/var/log/httpd/mylocal.dev-error.log"
    CustomLog "/usr/local/var/log/httpd/mylocal.dev-access.log" common
</VirtualHost>

At some point, I started to import my vhosts 1-by-1 for whatever reason. Just make sure that you’re including the conf in your /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf file.

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echo "Include /usr/local/etc/httpd/extra/mylocal.dev.conf" >> /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf

Great!! Now we can take it for a spin and try it out.

Check syntax and activate your local site:

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sudo httpd -t

If you get any errors, a good command to use is:

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httpd -e error

Remember to add your local domain to our /etc/hosts

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sudo bash -c 'echo "127.0.0.1 mylocal.dev" >> /etc/hosts'

Everything is fine and dandy?!

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brew services restart httpd

Test if it works:

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curl http://mylocal.dev
My mylocal.dev site works!

# Checkout our headers and follow redirects if any:
curl -IL http://mylocal.dev
My mylocal.dev site works!

Success!

Perhaps you want to set up a WP site

Create new DB in your local MySQL. If you don’t have any, install it by running brew install mysql. If you bump into any errors, make sure you don’t have any old versions of mysql running:

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brew remove mysql
brew cleanup
launchctl unload -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/var/mysql
brew install mysql

Alternative way of starting it:

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unset TMPDIR
mysql_install_db --verbose --user=`whoami` --basedir="$(brew --prefix mysql)" --datadir=/usr/local/var/mysql --tmpdir=/tmp
/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.5.10/bin/mysql_secure_installation
#start
launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist
#stop
launchctl unload -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist

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mysql -uroot -p
Enter password:
# Enter your password

Create DB and user and grant permissions:

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CREATE DATABASE `local` /*!40100 DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci */ /*!80016 DEFAULT ENCRYPTION='N' */
CREATE USER 'local'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH authentication_plugin BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `*`.`local` TO 'local'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Done!

Download and install WP

Make sure you have wp-cli installed, it will make your life much easier.

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cd /usr/local/var/www/mylocal.dev/
wp core download
wp config create --dbname=local --dbuser=local --dbpass=password
wp core install --url="mylocal.dev" --title="My local site" --admin_user="admin" --admin_email="you@example.com"
# Admin password: #1337113711371337
# Success: WordPress installed successfully.