Step 1: Download

Simply click on one of the links below. It's a good idea to get the latest version. :) A complete list of downloads (older versions) is available at SourceForge. A detailed overview over the changes and contents of all XAMPP releases is available in the RELEASE NOTES. XAMPP for Linux 1.6.1, 2007/4/18 Version XAMPP Linux 1.6.1 Size Notice 51 MB Apache 2.2.4, MySQL 5.0.37, PHP 5.2.1 & 4.4.6 & PEAR + SQLite 2.8.17/3.2.8 + multibyte (mbstring) support, Perl 5.8.7, ProFTPD 1.3.0a, phpMyAdmin 2.10.02, OpenSSL 0.9.8e, GD 2.0.1, Freetype2 2.1.7, libjpeg 6b, libpng 1.2.12, gdbm 1.8.0, zlib 1.2.3, expat 1.2, Sablotron 1.0, libxml 2.4.26, Ming 0.3, Webalizer 2.01, pdf class 009e, ncurses 5.8, mod_perl 2.0.2, FreeTDS 0.63, gettext 0.11.5, IMAP C-Client 2004e, OpenLDAP (client) 2.3.11, mcrypt 2.5.7, mhash 0.8.18, eAccelerator 0.9.4, cURL 7.13.1, libxslt 1.1.8, phpSQLiteAdmin 0.2, libapreq 2.07, FPDF 1.53, XAMPP Control Panel 0.6 MD5 checsum: b296ff33e3e76a9bf1893f3831141878 25 MB Upgrade package. How to upgrade? MD5 checksum: 1313c54714f24bd375a61fa8f0834dec 27 MB 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-1.6.1.tar.gz -C /opt MD5 checksum: 98d9e3e5c10d2f043aab21bf96a73a5b

Upgrade 1.6 to 1.6.1

Development package

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.

Step 2: Installation
After downloading simply type in the following commands:

1. Go to a Linux shell and login as the system administrator root:

su

2. Extract the downloaded archive file to /opt:

tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.6.1.tar.gz -C /opt

Warning: Please use only this command to install XAMPP. DON'T use any Microsoft Windows tools to extract the archive, it won't work. Warning 2: already installed XAMPP versions get overwritten by this command. That's all. XAMPP is now installed below the /opt/lampp directory.

Step 3: Start
To start XAMPP simply call this command:
/opt/lampp/lampp start

You should now see something like this on your screen:

Starting XAMPP 1.6.1... LAMPP: Starting Apache... LAMPP: Starting MySQL... LAMPP started.

Ready. Apache and MySQL are running. If you get any error messages please take a look at the Linux FAQ.

Step 4: Test
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.

A matter of security (A MUST READ!)

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: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 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.

PHP 4 or PHP 5?
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:
/opt/lampp/lampp phpstatus

Advanced start and stop parameters

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
start stop restart startapache startssl

Description Starts XAMPP. Stops XAMPP. Stops and starts XAMPP. Starts only the Apache. 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. Starts only the MySQL database. 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. Stops the Apache. 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.

startmysql startftp

stopapache stopssl

stopmysql stopftp

Stops the MySQL database. Stops the ProFTPD server. This command deactivates the ProFTPD permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future FTP will stay deactivated. Starts a small security check programm.

security

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.

What is where?
What is where? A big question of our existens, here are some answers! ;) IMPORTANT FILES AND DIRECTORIES File/Directory
/opt/lampp/bin/

Purpose The XAMPP commands home. /opt/lampp/bin/mysql calls for example the MySQL monitor. The Apache DocumentRoot directory. The Apache configuration file. The MySQL configuration file. The PHP configuration file. The ProFTPD configuration file. (since 0.9.5) The phpMyAdmin configuration file.

/opt/lampp/htdocs/ /opt/lampp/etc/httpd.conf /opt/lampp/etc/my.cnf /opt/lampp/etc/php.ini /opt/lampp/etc/proftpd.conf /opt/lampp/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php

Stopping XAMPP
To stop XAMPP simply call this command:
/opt/lampp/lampp stop

You should now see:

Stopping LAMPP 1.6.1... LAMPP: Stopping Apache... LAMPP: Stopping MySQL... LAMPP stopped.

And XAMPP for Linux is stopped.

Uninstall
To uninstall XAMPP just type in this command:
rm -rf /opt/lampp

The end.