Why is web sharing not in system preferences?

It hss been removed. For most users, there is still quite a bit more to setup. See my user tip for Mountain Lion specific instructions on how to setup a web server: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3083

Welcome to Apple Communities

http://coolestguyplanettech.com/downtown/install-and-configure-apache-mysql-php- and-phpmyadmin-osx-108-mountain-lion

saffronmike wrote:

Why is Web Sharing not in Sharing in System Preferences? I'm running Mountain Lion, but don't think that's a problem. I'm trying to install something called STACEY which is a CMS. Instructions for install went fine until I needed to turn web sharing on and it isn't there. Do I need to have a website on my Mac before the web sharing option will appear?

Web sharing remains in Mountain Lion, Apple removed the GUI simplicity of starting/stop by removing the web sharing choice from Sharing preferences. Apple now expects you to use the terminal command line to invoke web sharing! If you want a third-party web-sharing preference that starts/stops web-sharing, you might use this solution. I tried it and it works, but web sharing has to be restarted after a reboot.

During Mountain Lion install, two locations are configured for default web sharing (httpd) services.

Personal use document root

$ ls /etc/apache2/users

You should see a familiar text file as yourname.conf. In this file, the default web sharing document root is ~/Sites, and it contains a default index.html file. You can create subfolders, each with a different enclosed web site. From your browser, you would reference these as:

localhost/~username

localhost/~username/subfolder

Your CMS may have other instructions about what it wants as a default location.

System level document root

$ ls /Library/WebServer/Documents

Referenced in your browser as:

localhost/

localhost/subfolder

Temporary Web Sharing until reboot:

$ sudo apachectl start

You may receive a prompt to enable in-bound firewall connections for httpd. Yes, if you are sharing beyond your computer; no, if you are just using the CMS on your machine.

If you want to stop web sharing:

$ sudo apachectl stop

or if you have made configuration edits:

$ sudo apachectl restart

Web Sharing across reboots

$ sudo launchctl -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist

or

$ sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd Disabled -bool false

and if your CMS wants PHP enabled in Mountain Lion web-sharing:

$ ls /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

uncomment the following line:

# loadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

$ sudo apachectl restart

$ php --interactive

php > phpinfo()

php > quit

$

Message was edited by: VikingOSX

Message was edited by: VikingOSX

Thanks for your appreciation and glad to help.

I have an update for the PHP part of my reply.

The interactive syntax doesn't work ... my bad.

Put the following content in a text file within your local document root ~/Sites folder. You can call it info.php.

<?php

phpinfo();

?>

Assuming you enabled PHP from my previous post, enter the following in your web browser:

localhost/~yourname/info.php