Installing PHP

You may or may not need to install PHP. In many cases, PHP is already installed. For instance, most recent Linux and Mac distributions automatically install PHP. PHP is not provided with the Windows operating system.

You can check to see whether PHP needs to be installed. If it is not currently installed or if an older version is installed and needs to be updated, you need to install PHP.

Installing PHP includes the following steps. Each step is a link to further explanation of the step.

  1. Check whether PHP needs to be installed.
  2. Obtain the PHP software, usually by downloading it from a Web site.
  3. Install PHP.
  4. Configure your Web server for PHP.
  5. Configure PHP.
  6. Test PHP.
  7. Activate MySQL Support in PHP.

If your PHP installation doesn't work correctly after you finish installing it, see Troubleshooting.