Adding a PHP Extension

[Tim Roberts]

Hello.

Caveat: I'm not a unix guru.  Barely a server admin.  We use Mac OS X Server because it 'just works'.  I manage the server via the Server Admin GUI.

We hired a contractor to build a new website for us using Expression Engine.  The site is complete and running on the developer's server.  It is time to transfer it to our server - Mac OS X Server 10.6.4. The developer hit a snag because the mcrypt php extension is non-existant.

My goal is to add the mcrypt extension to php so we can complete the installation.

After a bunch of Google research, I learned that mcrypt is not bundled with the default Mac OS X server build of php.  I gather that I need to rebuild php (gulp!)  I also learned that MacPorts was a tool that I could use to simplify this process.  So...

Last night, I installed MacPorts.  Using MacPorts, I subsequently installed mcrypt.  That process installed libmcrypt and mhash.  Stopped and restarted Apache.  Loaded info.php via a browser.  Still no mcrypt.

Today, I used MacPorts to install php5-mcrypt.  That installed a bunch of things including apache2 (which, of course, I already have).  Scary.  Stopped and restarted apache.  Still no mcrypt.

I'm enclosing what was displayed in the terminal window from today's episode.

The following two notes are bothering me:
Note: apache2 installs files outside the common directory structure.
Note: php5 installs files outside the common directory structure.

Does this mean that I have somehow polluted the default apache and php installations?

What does this mean:
To customize php, copy /opt/local/etc/php5/php.ini-development (if this is a development server) or /opt/local/etc/php5/php.ini-production (if this is a production server) to /opt/local/etc/php5/php.ini and then make changes.
If this is your first install, you need to activate PHP in your web server.
To enable PHP in Apache, run cd /opt/local/apache2/modules /opt/local/apache2/bin/apxs -a -e -n "php5" libphp5.so

I don't understand the big picture.  It appears everything that MacPorts does is contained in the /opt directory?  I'm obviously missing something that would be obvious to a "guru".   I would appreciate any insight.

Thank you.

Timothy H. Roberts
Senior Director, Division of Information Technology/Membership
Colorado Medical Society
720-859-1001
800-654-5653
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