Install APC (Alternative PHP Cache) in RHEL/CentOS 6/5 & Fedora 20-12

APC (Alternate PHP Cache) is an free and open source cache for PHP code. The main goal of this module is to provide robust framework for caching and optimizing PHP code.

Install and Enable PHP APC in Linux

The instructions provided here shows how to install and enable APC caching for PHP onRHEL 6.5/6.4/6.3/6.2/6.1/6/5.8/5.6, CentOS 6.5/6.4/6.3/6.2/6.1/6/5.8/5.6 and Fedora 20,19,18,17,16,15,14,13,12 using PECL command to download from the repositories.

Install Dependency Packages for APC

First, we need to install required packages called pecl, phpize and apxs commands, to installAPC using YUM package manager tool.

yum install php-pear php-devel httpd-devel pcre-devel gcc make

Install APC Using PECL

Now we have all the needed packages to install APC. Here we use PECL command to install it. Please select default settings when asked.

pecl install apc

Sample Output :

WARNING: channel "pecl.php.net" has updated its protocols, use "pecl channel-update pecl.php.net" to update
downloading APC-3.1.9.tgz ...
Starting to download APC-3.1.9.tgz (155,540 bytes)
.................................done: 155,540 bytes
54 source files, building
running: phpize
Configuring for:
PHP Api Version:         20090626
Zend Module Api No:      20090626
Zend Extension Api No:   220090626
config.m4:180: warning: AC_CACHE_VAL(PHP_APC_GCC_ATOMICS, ...): suspicious cache-id, must contain _cv_ to be cached
../../lib/autoconf/general.m4:1974: AC_CACHE_VAL is expanded from...
../../lib/autoconf/general.m4:1994: AC_CACHE_CHECK is expanded from...
config.m4:180: the top level
config.m4:180: warning: AC_CACHE_VAL(PHP_APC_GCC_ATOMICS, ...): suspicious cache-id, must contain _cv_ to be cached
../../lib/autoconf/general.m4:1974: AC_CACHE_VAL is expanded from...
../../lib/autoconf/general.m4:1994: AC_CACHE_CHECK is expanded from...
config.m4:180: the top level
Enable internal debugging in APC [no] :
Enable per request file info about files used from the APC cache [no] :
Enable spin locks (EXPERIMENTAL) [no] :
Enable memory protection (EXPERIMENTAL) [no] :
Enable pthread mutexes (default) [yes] :
Enable pthread read/write locks (EXPERIMENTAL) [no] :

Enable APC PHP Extension

Run the following command to enable APC extension in Apache configuration.

echo "extension=apc.so" > /etc/php.d/apc.ini

Restart Apache Service for APC

Restart the Apache service to take new changes.

service httpd restart
OR
/etc/init.d/httpd restart

Verify APC Installation

Create a file phpinfo.php in Apache web root directory. For example/var/www/html/phpinfo.php.

# vi /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

Add the following code to it. save and close.

<?php

// Show all information, defaults to INFO_ALL
phpinfo();

?>

Open any browser and type the following URL. You will see APC enabled configuration similar to below.

http://localhost/phpinfo.php

PHP APC Configuration Screen

Enable PHP APC administration

To enable APC administration panel, copy the following file.

cp /usr/share/pear/apc.php /var/www/html/

Now open the file apc.php with VI editor.

# vi /var/www/html/apc.php

Now set the username and password in the file apc.php as shown below.

defaults('ADMIN_USERNAME','apc');       // Admin Username
defaults('ADMIN_PASSWORD','Set-Password-Here');  // Admin Password - CHANGE THIS TO ENABLE!!!

Type the following URL in the browser. You will get administration panel of APC.

http://localhost/apc.php

Some screenshots of APC Administration panel for your reference.

Vies Host Stats

APC View Host Stats Overview

System Cache Entries

APC System Cache Entries Overview

User Cache Entries

APC User Cache Entries Overview

APC Login Screen

APC Admin Login Screen

APC Version Check

APC Version Check Overview

Upgrade APC using PECL

To upgrade, just execute following command it will download and upgrade APC.

pecl upgrade apc

Uninstall APC using PECL

If you like to remove it, then simple type the following command to uninstall APC completely from the system.

pecl uninstall apc