The development package contains all files you need if you want to compile other software packages for XAMPP by yourself and the Unix manual pages. Install this package like the normal XAMPP distribution: tar xvfz xampp-linux-devel-1.6.6.tar.gz -C /opt MD5 checksum: 8a8fb14556b281f396f90833c4583c42
Attention: If you download these files on a Windows system and you're running McAfee virus scanner you may get a false positive virus warning. This is a problem with McAfee and gzip-compressed files, it should be ignored.
OK, that was easy but how can you check that everything really works? Just type in the following URL at your favourite web browser:
http://localhost
Now you should see the start page of XAMPP containing some links to check the status of the installed software and some small programming examples.
The Instant Art example: A small PHP/GD program (since 0.9.6pre1 also a flashy PHP/Ming example, see screenshot). Thanks to Anke Arnold for her font »AnkeCalligraph«.
As mentioned before, XAMPP is not meant for production use but only for developers in a development environment. The way XAMPP is configured is to be open as possible and allowing 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 "nobody".
PhpMyAdmin is accessible via network.
Examples are accessible via network.
MySQL and Apache running under the same user (nobody).
To fix most of the security weaknesses simply call the following command:
/opt/lampp/lampp security
It starts a small security check and makes your XAMPP installation more secure.
Because such very new versions like PHP 5 always should be handled with care we decided to include both current versions of PHP into XAMPP since version 1.4.7: PHP 5.x and PHP 4.x. If you find out your PHP application doesn't work with PHP 5 you will be able to switch back easily to PHP 4.
By the following command you can switch "back" to PHP 4.x:
/opt/lampp/lampp php4
And with the following command you can switch back to PHP 5.x:
/opt/lampp/lampp php5
If you forgot which version of PHP is in use simply use phpinfo() or call this command:
Until version 0.9.4 /opt/lampp/lampp could only start and stop XAMPP. Since version 0.9.5 it learned a lot of new things to do.
START AND STOP PARAMETERS
Parameter
Description
start
Starts XAMPP.
stop
Stops XAMPP.
restart
Stops and starts XAMPP.
startapache
Starts only the Apache.
startssl
Starts the Apache SSL support. This command activates the SSL support permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future SSL will stay activated.
startmysql
Starts only the MySQL database.
startftp
Starts the ProFTPD server. Via FTP you can upload files for your web server (user "nobody", password "lampp"). This command activates the ProFTPD permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future FTP will stay activated.
stopapache
Stops the Apache.
stopssl
Stops the Apache SSL support. This command deactivates the SSL support permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future SSL will stay deactivated.
stopmysql
Stops the MySQL database.
stopftp
Stops the ProFTPD server. This command deactivates the ProFTPD permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future FTP will stay deactivated.
security
Starts a small security check programm.
For example: To start Apache with SSL support simply type in the following command (as root):
/opt/lampp/lampp startssl
You can also access your Apache server via SSL under https://localhost.