Comments on: wherefore art thou MAMP

Question: wherefore art thou MAMP

ook — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:54:58 -0800

OSX comes with Apache and MySQL pre-installed. Why does MAMP exist? Is there any reason to prefer it to the native installations?

By: Oktober

Oktober — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:58:41 -0800

Right off the top: the pre-installed versions are only patched with system updates (10.8.x) and sometimes only with major version updates (10.x), and manually updating those packages can sometimes break system updating (or vice versa), so it's easier to have the whole thing as a standalone package.

By: fightorflight

fightorflight — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:00:28 -0800

OS X doesn't come with MySQL preinstalled. And the Apache install is now hidden from the user -- it's not in the Sharing pref pane any longer.

On top of which, they'll happily break whatever your Apache configuration is during an upgrade, so it's both easier and safer to use MAMP.

By: [insert clever name here]

[insert clever name here] — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:12:00 -0800

PhpMyAdmin

By: mkultra

mkultra — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:20:01 -0800

[insert clever name here]: "PhpMyAdmin"

This, and Apple has an annoying habit of putting UNIX programs in non-standard places in OS X. If you plan on doing any kind of serious development, using other apps that rely on things like Apache and MySQL, it's much less of a headache to install a second "UNIX-friendly" instance of these things than wonder why some service won't work because its config is looking for some mysql library that's not in the right place.

By: ook

ook — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:42:44 -0800

Oktober has just reminded me of a webroot-destroying upgrade incident I had blocked from my memory. Reason enough, I suppose.

But

Apple has an annoying habit of putting UNIX programs in non-standard places in OS X.

Oh god I totally agree with you on this. But isn't MAMP just another layer of stuff-installed-in-non-standard-places?

By: kosmonaut

kosmonaut — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:11:51 -0800

But isn't MAMP just another layer of stuff-installed-in-non-standard-places?

Yes. MAMP is much less standard than the Apple setup.

I am a web developer and I use MAMP for development. MAMP is great when you just want to run an Apache server with MySQL for testing purposes, and you want to do it quickly and not worry about it. It is preconfigured and ready to go — just launch the program. And shutting it down is just as easy — quit the program.

If I use the built-in stuff on non-server OS X, I need to go to the command line and get everything configured and launched. When Apple does updates whatever I configure may or may not get broken. It's not worth the hassle if I just want the server for my own use.

But, this is not software you would use for a server that will be exposed to the world — it is not going to be secure. (Maybe MAMP Pro lets you easily configure things securely — I only use the free MAMP.)