Following up on the idea of configuring Apache with virtual hosts on your own computer, you will probably need to install some extra software to more closely resemble your web host.
So after spending some time with this and my PowerBook this weekend, I have a few key Mac websites, mostly about installing various UNIX programs in OS X. (You’ll need Xcode installed for much of this.)
Marc Liyanage’s site is the place to go for updating your PHP, information on installing MySQL, and ImageMagick.
Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) has every Perl module you’d ever want or need. Mac OS X 10.3 ships with the cpan installer. Just type “sudo cpan” at your Terminal prompt and follow the initial setup procedure. After that, most modules can be installed with a simple “install module::name”. If you’re trying to install DBD::mysql because for example you’re trying to setup Movable Type with MySQL, TruerWords has the information you need. Or if you’d rather go the Mac installer route, there’s this.
Fink of course is the program that everyone talks about for installing UNIX software on your Mac. There are lots of pre-compiled binaries ready to go. It’s very easy to use. I am a bit annoyed that it puts things in /sw/bin. Call me a purest, but I like /usr/local/bin better.
Even though it offers 4000+ packages I found several that I was hoping to use that it didn’t have. Screen, jhead, and jpegtran were either not included or listed as being unstable and only available as source. That’s why after a bit a poking around I found what I think might be a better thing:
DarwinPorts seems very cool. I have not used this yet but on initial examination it passed several of my tests. Even though it only has 1700+ packages it did have the 3 that I was looking for. In most cases, the versions on DarwinPorts are newer than the version on Fink. It also looks like I can install these in /usr/local/bin. (To be fair, there’s probably a way to get Fink to install in /usr/local/bin as well.)
I’m seriously considering deleting Fink and going with DarwinPorts.