XAMPP FAQs for Mac OS X

How do I do install XAMPP for Mac OS X?

To install XAMPP just do the following:

Open the DMG-Image.
Double-click on 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

Now you should see the XAMPP start page.

Is XAMPP production ready?

XAMPP is not meant for production use but only for development environments. The way XAMPP is configured is 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".
PhpMyAdmin is accessible via network.

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

sudo /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/xampp security

It will kick off a 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 seems 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 we 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?

In the default installation, XAMPP has no passwords set and it is not recommended to run XAMPP with this configuration accessible by 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: Your XAMPP pages are NOT secured by a password. XAMPP: Do you want to set a password? [yes] yes (1) XAMPP: Password: ****** XAMPP: Password (again): ****** XAMPP: Password protection active. Please use 'lampp' as user name! 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 calling 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...

Now the extension should 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.

To enable remote access to phpMyAdmin, follow these steps:

Edit the etc/extra/httpd-xampp.conf file in your XAMPP installation directory.
Within this file, find the line below and update it to remove 'phpmyadmin' from the list of locations.
<LocationMatch "^/(?i:(?:xampp|security|licenses|phpmyadmin|webalizer|server-status|server-info))">
Restart the Apache server using the XAMPP control panel.

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 backuped data. Get this file to a save 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