LAMP Question

[joelbyrd]

I was looking at jobs on craigslist and saw several postings saying
something like "2+ years experience developing for a LAMP
(Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) platform...". Now, I've been working with PHP
and MySQL a few months now, but here's my question: where does the
Linux part and Apache part come in? What should I know? In other
words, I don't think I've ever had to deal with anything specific to
Linux or Apache, so in what circumstances would knowledge of these need
to come in? (I hope that's somewhat clear)

[samudasu]

I guess it depends on what the company is expecting you to do. Most
likely their environment is setup on unix/linux machines so that would
required you to know your way around a linux os. There are also many
linux OS functions that could be used with exec() and other Process
execution functions of php. As far as Apache goes, most serious
websites run on it so it would be worth your while to know at least a
little about it. I suppose another part of it is a bias of the company
towards linux and not windows. PHP, mysql, and apache also grew up and
were developed on unix/linux os platforms.

[d]

"samudasu" <sa******@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@g14g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...

I guess it depends on what the company is expecting you to do. Most
likely their environment is setup on unix/linux machines so that would
required you to know your way around a linux os. There are also many
linux OS functions that could be used with exec() and other Process
execution functions of php. As far as Apache goes, most serious
websites run on it so it would be worth your while to know at least a
little about it. I suppose another part of it is a bias of the company
towards linux and not windows. PHP, mysql, and apache also grew up and
were developed on unix/linux os platforms.

I wouldn't say they were necessarily biased - they just have their sites
hosted on linux, and want a developer who's familiar with it :)

[samudasu]

You're right d. I meant to say it's possible that some companies may
have a bias towards one os or another.
Joel, i suggest setting up a linux box and installing apache, mysql,
php, and then playing around with it. You can even setup a dual boot
system with windows and linux. You can then say you're familiar with
lamp. Other than that, if you're competent with php programming that
should be enough for most companies.
good luck!

[d]

"samudasu" <sa******@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@g43g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...

You're right d. I meant to say it's possible that some companies may
have a bias towards one os or another.
Joel, i suggest setting up a linux box and installing apache, mysql,
php, and then playing around with it. You can even setup a dual boot
system with windows and linux. You can then say you're familiar with
lamp. Other than that, if you're competent with php programming that
should be enough for most companies.
good luck!

indeed :)

Another good way to get to grips with it is to use a virtual machine. That
way you have all your documentation to hand (and a familiar OS :)) while you
find your feet.

dave

[Jim Carlock]

"d" <[e-mail]> posted:

Another good way to get to grips with it is to use a virtual machine.

Would you (or anyone else) be able to recommend a virtual machine?
Virtual machine, to me, means a command-prompt with a Unix look
and feel, with Unix commands which translate into the MS-DOS
equivalents. Is that the same type of Virtual Machine you refer to?

Jim Carlock
Post replies to the group.

[d]

"Jim Carlock" <an*******@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:bF*******************@tornado.tampabay.rr.com ...

"d" <[e-mail]> posted:

Another good way to get to grips with it is to use a virtual machine.

Would you (or anyone else) be able to recommend a virtual machine?
Virtual machine, to me, means a command-prompt with a Unix look
and feel, with Unix commands which translate into the MS-DOS
equivalents. Is that the same type of Virtual Machine you refer to?

Jim Carlock
Post replies to the group.

I'm talking about a virtual machine like VMWare. You set it up, and you
essentially get a new PC running in a window on your chosen OS. You can
make it run full-screen, so it looks and feels like an actual PC rather than
a virtual one. It emulates a decent-enough graphics card to run your GUI of
choice, has sound, USB, etc. support. You can run a distro in it, and it'll
work perfectly. You can pause/resume the machine at will, and using
VMWare's new (and free) server software, run the virtual machine as a
service.

It's come a long way :)

www.vmware.com

dave

[Jasen Betts]

On 2006-02-14, jo******@gmail.com <jo******@gmail.com> wrote:

I was looking at jobs on craigslist and saw several postings saying
something like "2+ years experience developing for a LAMP
(Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) platform...". Now, I've been working with PHP
and MySQL a few months now, but here's my question: where does the
Linux part and Apache part come in? What should I know? In other
words, I don't think I've ever had to deal with anything specific to
Linux or Apache, so in what circumstances would knowledge of these need
to come in? (I hope that's somewhat clear)

how to configure /etc/apache2/hosts/enabled/*

how to install/configure apache modules,

..htaccess

basic linux command line (like why "cp /there/*" is a bad idea)

linux filesystem features: symbolic and hard links, mount(6), chmod(1),
chown(1)

some DNS knowledge could help too.
--

Bye.
Jasen

[P-Rage]

I would stay away from the VMWare idea. If you land a job, you're not
likely to use virtual machines; you'll use real ones. So, familiarize
yourself with installing a few Linux distros, and
installing/configuring Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Most of the job
descriptions I see call for knowledge of either RedHat or Debian based
distros. I have seen a few calling for Novell's,OSs but it's rare. Good
Luck!

[David Haynes]

P-Rage wrote:

I would stay away from the VMWare idea. If you land a job, you're not
likely to use virtual machines; you'll use real ones. So, familiarize
yourself with installing a few Linux distros, and
installing/configuring Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Most of the job
descriptions I see call for knowledge of either RedHat or Debian based
distros. I have seen a few calling for Novell's,OSs but it's rare. Good
Luck!

I suspect you are unfamiliar with VMware.
VMware runs a full native OS, so you can have an instance of Windows and
Linux (e.g. Fedora Core 4 or SuSe) running on the same platform at the
same time.

The GSX product runs on top of windows and is free (as in beer). Since
it runs on top of an OS, there is a performance penalty.

The ESX product runs underneath the OS (it is Linux) and is still $$s
(IFAIK).

-david-

[d]

"P-Rage" <pr********@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@g43g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...

I would stay away from the VMWare idea. If you land a job, you're not
likely to use virtual machines; you'll use real ones. So, familiarize
yourself with installing a few Linux distros, and
installing/configuring Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Most of the job
descriptions I see call for knowledge of either RedHat or Debian based
distros. I have seen a few calling for Novell's,OSs but it's rare. Good
Luck!

VMWare is not the same as a virtual server package you might get from your
ISP... it's a lot cheaper than buying a second PC, and gives you all the
benefits :)

dave

[Double Echo]

Jim Carlock wrote:

"d" <[e-mail]> posted:

Another good way to get to grips with it is to use a virtual machine.

Would you (or anyone else) be able to recommend a virtual machine?
Virtual machine, to me, means a command-prompt with a Unix look
and feel, with Unix commands which translate into the MS-DOS
equivalents. Is that the same type of Virtual Machine you refer to?

Jim Carlock
Post replies to the group.

I don't get paid for endorsing software, and don't work for VMware so
this is not a troll!

VMware 5 workstation is awesome! Download it and try it out it rocks.

I was doing the dual-boot thang on my laptop, and it just got to be
too disruptive. I needed wireless connectivity via an air-card, ( not
just 802.11g ) to get out to the net via my Wireless phone company,
so I could have wireless anywhere. Software isn't available for the
air-card on Linux, so booting into Linux was ok as long as I could
find an 801.11g WAN if I wanted wireless access to the net. And then
it was dealing with email, etc etc. I'd have to go boot back into Windows
just to get my email, and then back into Linux again, like running a
submarine or something, now we're back in Linux, no internet, isolated,
etc etc. It got to be too much, I needed Windows and Linux at the same
time, on my laptop, so what to do? VMware!

I now have WindowsXP running all my desktop shit, and air-card out to
the net while at my client site, and VMware running SuSE10, FLAWLESSLY.
VMware runs my SuSE10 in 256MB of memory!! Is that awesome or what.
I have 1GB of memory on my laptop so there's room for even another VM
of another distro, at the same time. And I can "team" them up too,
some kind of clustering or subnetting thing with VMware I still haven't
explored.

Cool thing about VMware, it automagically set up the net for me, and
when I'm in the VM, I can get out to the net, and do all my PHP/Apache
/MySQL stuff as if I'm on a real server. It's awesome. Until Linux
gets an air-card that works like a cable-modem, I'm done. I can connect
to the VM Apache web server from Windows just like it's another server
out there, and do real PHP programming on Linux, and not have to install
PHP or Apache on Windows. VMware Workstation is only $189, so it's cheaper
and easier to use that if you'd use MKSToolkit or cygwin, and those products
never really get you the real world, easier to get real Linux in a VM, and
you're done, no incompatibility issues or any of that shit. Get VMware
or don't, but I'm telling you it's awesome. The other thing about
VMware is the "Fit VM Guest Now" function that sizes the desktop to
your monitor. Too many cool features about VMware, and get this, you
can share your CD-ROM between the VM and Windows at the same time, as
well as your Windows disk drives. It is really cool stuff. The price
is right too, 30-day eval, you can't go wrong.

[Steve]

On Tue, 14 Feb 2006 23:30:18 +0000, d wrote:

"P-Rage" <pr********@gmail.com> wrote in message

VMWare is not the same as a virtual server package you might get from your
ISP... it's a lot cheaper than buying a second PC, and gives you all the
benefits :)

dave

It's so cheap, it's free!

[Steve]

On Mon, 13 Feb 2006 22:41:55 -0800, joelbyrd wrote:

I was looking at jobs on craigslist and saw several postings saying
something like "2+ years experience developing for a LAMP
(Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) platform...". Now, I've been working with PHP
and MySQL a few months now, but here's my question: where does the
Linux part and Apache part come in? What should I know? In other
words, I don't think I've ever had to deal with anything specific to
Linux or Apache, so in what circumstances would knowledge of these need
to come in? (I hope that's somewhat clear)

Try it and see. Is your experience related to serving websites, or just
general php on a box experience. There's nothing particularly difficult
about either linux or apache, despite what the M$ FUD says. But you *do*
have to understand what you're doing - blindly clicking boxes until it
sort of does what you want will not work.

As suggested by others, VMWare is a good place to start - you won't damage
your machine in any way ( well, as long as you've got plenty of memory (: ).

My $0.02,

Steve

[d]

"Double Echo" <do********@your.com> wrote in message
news:B6******************@fe78.usenetserver.com...

Jim Carlock wrote:

"d" <[e-mail]> posted:

Another good way to get to grips with it is to use a virtual machine.
Would you (or anyone else) be able to recommend a virtual machine?
Virtual machine, to me, means a command-prompt with a Unix look
and feel, with Unix commands which translate into the MS-DOS
equivalents. Is that the same type of Virtual Machine you refer to?

Jim Carlock
Post replies to the group.

I don't get paid for endorsing software, and don't work for VMware so
this is not a troll!

VMware 5 workstation is awesome! Download it and try it out it rocks.

I was doing the dual-boot thang on my laptop, and it just got to be
too disruptive. I needed wireless connectivity via an air-card, ( not
just 802.11g ) to get out to the net via my Wireless phone company,
so I could have wireless anywhere. Software isn't available for the
air-card on Linux, so booting into Linux was ok as long as I could
find an 801.11g WAN if I wanted wireless access to the net. And then
it was dealing with email, etc etc. I'd have to go boot back into Windows
just to get my email, and then back into Linux again, like running a
submarine or something, now we're back in Linux, no internet, isolated,
etc etc. It got to be too much, I needed Windows and Linux at the same
time, on my laptop, so what to do? VMware!

I now have WindowsXP running all my desktop shit, and air-card out to
the net while at my client site, and VMware running SuSE10, FLAWLESSLY.
VMware runs my SuSE10 in 256MB of memory!! Is that awesome or what.
I have 1GB of memory on my laptop so there's room for even another VM
of another distro, at the same time. And I can "team" them up too,
some kind of clustering or subnetting thing with VMware I still haven't
explored.

Cool thing about VMware, it automagically set up the net for me, and
when I'm in the VM, I can get out to the net, and do all my PHP/Apache
/MySQL stuff as if I'm on a real server. It's awesome. Until Linux
gets an air-card that works like a cable-modem, I'm done. I can connect
to the VM Apache web server from Windows just like it's another server
out there, and do real PHP programming on Linux, and not have to install
PHP or Apache on Windows. VMware Workstation is only $189, so it's
cheaper
and easier to use that if you'd use MKSToolkit or cygwin, and those
products
never really get you the real world, easier to get real Linux in a VM, and
you're done, no incompatibility issues or any of that shit. Get VMware
or don't, but I'm telling you it's awesome. The other thing about
VMware is the "Fit VM Guest Now" function that sizes the desktop to
your monitor. Too many cool features about VMware, and get this, you
can share your CD-ROM between the VM and Windows at the same time, as
well as your Windows disk drives. It is really cool stuff. The price
is right too, 30-day eval, you can't go wrong.

So couldn't you use the 30-day eval to create the machine, then use the free
player/server to run it? :-P

[d]

"Steve" <Th*****@Aint.Valid> wrote in message
news:pa***************************@Aint.Valid...

On Mon, 13 Feb 2006 22:41:55 -0800, joelbyrd wrote:

I was looking at jobs on craigslist and saw several postings saying
something like "2+ years experience developing for a LAMP
(Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) platform...". Now, I've been working with PHP
and MySQL a few months now, but here's my question: where does the
Linux part and Apache part come in? What should I know? In other
words, I don't think I've ever had to deal with anything specific to
Linux or Apache, so in what circumstances would knowledge of these need
to come in? (I hope that's somewhat clear)
Try it and see. Is your experience related to serving websites, or just
general php on a box experience. There's nothing particularly difficult
about either linux or apache, despite what the M$ FUD says.

There is when you have to start compiling things :-P
But you *do*
have to understand what you're doing - blindly clicking boxes until it
sort of does what you want will not work.

As suggested by others, VMWare is a good place to start - you won't damage
your machine in any way ( well, as long as you've got plenty of memory
(: ).

My $0.02,

Steve

[Jasen Betts]

On 2006-02-14, d <[e-mail]> wrote:

"P-Rage" <pr********@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@g43g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...

I would stay away from the VMWare idea. If you land a job, you're not
likely to use virtual machines; you'll use real ones. So, familiarize
yourself with installing a few Linux distros, and
installing/configuring Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Most of the job
descriptions I see call for knowledge of either RedHat or Debian based
distros. I have seen a few calling for Novell's,OSs but it's rare. Good
Luck!

VMWare is not the same as a virtual server package you might get from your
ISP... it's a lot cheaper than buying a second PC, and gives you all the
benefits :)

a $20 second-hand PC is all that's needed to run linux,apache, and PHP
eg a 200 Mhz pentium 2 with 32M ram 2G hard drive, 10M net, it's enough
to learn on...

you don't need a screen or a keyboard (after install) if you're only using
it for a server.

Bye.
Jasen

[d]

"Jasen Betts" <ja***@free.net.nz> wrote in message
news:32*****************@clunker.homenet...

On 2006-02-14, d <[e-mail]> wrote:

"P-Rage" <pr********@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@g43g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...

I would stay away from the VMWare idea. If you land a job, you're not
likely to use virtual machines; you'll use real ones. So, familiarize
yourself with installing a few Linux distros, and
installing/configuring Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Most of the job
descriptions I see call for knowledge of either RedHat or Debian based
distros. I have seen a few calling for Novell's,OSs but it's rare. Good
Luck!
VMWare is not the same as a virtual server package you might get from
your
ISP... it's a lot cheaper than buying a second PC, and gives you all the
benefits :)

a $20 second-hand PC is all that's needed to run linux,apache, and PHP
eg a 200 Mhz pentium 2 with 32M ram 2G hard drive, 10M net, it's enough
to learn on...

That's $20 more than VMWare (you can use the evaluation version to make a
PC, and then the free server/player to run it), and you don't need the extra
space for a second PC. You can also put the virtual machine onto your ipod,
say, and take it to work and mess around with it there (faster than over the
net). You can also take backups of your disks easier in case you mess
something up during experiments. Plus, networking is all set up immediately
(no need for more cat5 or ports on your router). The benefits of VMWare
really do outweigh buying a second PC for learning linux.
you don't need a screen or a keyboard (after install) if you're only using
it for a server.

Bye.
Jasen

[P-Rage]

VMWare blows!

First, you need quite a bit of memory and a CPU with a good-sized L2
cache if you want a respectable response time from the virtual
operating systems, it's cheaper to install Linux on an old PC, as
someone as already mentioned.

Second, any linux administrator is going to be running a stand alone
linux distro, not VMWare with a shit ton of VOS.

Third, does anyone here trust VMWare as a secure server OS?

But, do what you wish... just my $.02.

[d]

"P-Rage" <pr********@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@g14g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...

VMWare blows!

First, you need quite a bit of memory and a CPU with a good-sized L2
cache if you want a respectable response time from the virtual
operating systems, it's cheaper to install Linux on an old PC, as
someone as already mentioned.
I have a 3.2ghz p4, which I've had for years, and it can run 2 distros at
the same time, on top of my windows. And my PC only has 1gb of memory. The
response times are very respectable indeed. And, it's cheaper to use VMWare
(as you can actually use it for free).
Second, any linux administrator is going to be running a stand alone
linux distro, not VMWare with a shit ton of VOS.
You'd be surprised, though that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it's a
great way to learn the OS. How many linux administrators use $20 machines
at work? :-P
Third, does anyone here trust VMWare as a secure server OS?
That's not even an issue. This is for learning, not deployment. And, if
you must know, it's as secure as the operating system on it.
But, do what you wish... just my $.02.

dave

[NC]

jo******@gmail.com wrote:

I was looking at jobs on craigslist and saw several postings saying
something like "2+ years experience developing for a LAMP
(Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) platform...". Now, I've been working
with PHP and MySQL a few months now, but here's my question:
where does the Linux part and Apache part come in?
OK, let's imagine a simple situation... You have a script that does
some memory-intensive work. The default 8M memory limit is not enough;
you want to increase it. So you need to know where to find php.ini and
what directive(s) to change once you find it. You also need to
remember to restart Apache to make sure your changes are activated...

Now, a more complicated situation... You are building an in-house
application for a company. The testing runs are going great, now it's
time to deploy. The application is supposed to run on a dedicated
Linux server installed on premises. The company bought a brand-new
server; it just arrived to the office. Now you need to get it ready it
to host your application... This may include having to configure
Apache, as well as installing, configuring, and fine-tuning MySQL.
It's also possible you may want to throw in a Samba server, so that you
can work with your scripts from your Windows development workstation.

Good knowledge of the underlying OS can also help a lot if you are
developing command-line scripts.
What should I know?
The more, the better... Simple tidbits (say, "HTTP authentication is
only available when PHP is running as an Apache module, not as a CGI
executable", or "Apache 2 with a threaded MPM is not to be used in a
production environment; the prefork MPM should be used instead"),
intermediate things (say, use of mod_rewrite to beautify URLs or use of
cron for scheduling application maintenance tasks), advanced things
(performance tuning, load balancing, etc.)... You may not want to
become a fully-grown system administrator, but it won't hurt to be able
to maintain a sensible conversation with one...
In other words, I don't think I've ever had to deal with anything
specific to Linux or Apache, so in what circumstances would
knowledge of these need to come in?

In any situation where you are responsible not just for developing your
application, but for deploying and operating it...

Cheers,
NC

[joelbyrd]

Thank you - just what I was looking for. Very helpful.