Here are my notes for setting up a brand new Linux/Ubuntu server for Drupal development. If you are cool with the command line, then you might find this handy.

1. Install Apache/MySQL/PHP via tasksel

Reference: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ApacheMySQLPHP

> sudo apt-get update
> sudo apt-get install tasksel
> sudo tasksel install lamp-server


You will be asked to provide a mysql root password.

Test installation worked:

> apache2 -v
> mysql --version
> php -v


2. Install gd

Reference: http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-linux-install-or-add-php-gd-support-...

> sudo apt-get install php5-gd
> sudo service apache2 restart


Test installation worked:

> php5 -m | grep -i gd


3. Install mail server via tasksel

Reference: http://askubuntu.com/questions/54960/how-do-i-set-up-an-email-server

> sudo tasksel install mail-server


You will be required to provide the main/default domain for your server, e.g. example.org

Test installation worked:

> echo "This is a test." | mail -s Testing someone@somedomain.com


4. Enable Apache mod_rewrite for clean URLs

Reference: https://www.drupal.org/node/1572984

> sudo a2enmod rewrite


This will create a link from /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/rewrite.load to /etc/apache2/sites-available/rewrite.load.

> cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
> sudo cp default default.orig
> sudo vi default


Search for 'AllowOverride None' and change 'None' to 'All' and save.

Repeat for default-ssl.

> sudo service apache2 restart


This will be tested once Drupal is installed.

5. Install Drush

Reference: https://www.drupal.org/project/drush

> sudo apt-get install php-pear
> sudo pear channel-discover pear.drush.org
> sudo pear install drush/drush


Test drush:

> drush


If you get a message that Drush needs to download a library, do:

> sudo drush
> sudo chown -R [youruser]:[youruser] ~/.drush/cache


or download/install library yourself

Test again:

> drush


6. (optional) Install phpmyadmin

Reference: http://www.allaboutlinux.eu/how-to-install-drupal-7-on-ubuntu/3/

I don't use this, but you can install with:

> sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin


7. Install Drupal via drush

Reference: http://drush.ws/help/5#site-install

Make it so admin users can create directories in /var/www:

> cd /var
> sudo chgrp [admin-group] www
> sudo chmod 775 www


Install Drupal:

> cd www
> drush dl drupal
> mv [drupaldir] [sitedir] (e.g. mv drupal-7.14 examplesite)
> cd [sitedir]
> drush site-install standard --db-url='mysql://root:pass@localhost:port/dbname' --site-mail=[site-email] --site-name=[site-name] --account-mail=[account-email] --account-name=[account-name] --account-pass=[account-password]


8. (Alternative to drush Drupal install) Install Drupal manually

Reference: https://www.drupal.org/documentation/install/download

1. Grab Drupal zip file from https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal.
2. Unzip and rename/move directory to /var/www/[sitename]
3. Create database in mysql, e.g.
   
> mysql -u [user] -p[password]
> create database [database-name];
> exit;

   
   
   
4. Copy /var/www/[sitename]/default.settings.php to /var/www/[sitename]/settings.php and make writable with:
   
> cd /var/www/[sitename]/sites/default
> cp default.settings.php settings.php
> chmod a+w settings.php

   
   
   
5. Create files directory with:
   
> cd /var/www/[sitename]/sites/default
> sudo mkdir files
> sudo chown [admin-user]:www-data files
> sudo chmod 775 files


   I used to use 'chown www-data:www-data files' but the ownership shown above for files works best with drush: https://www.drupal.org/node/759970

   
   
   

6. From browser, go to: http://[yourdomain]/[sitename]/install.php
7. Run through installation process

9. Check out your new site!

Go to http://[yourdomain]/[sitedir] in a browser to see your new Drupal site. Login using the account name and account password used above.

To see if clean URLs are working, go to http://[yourdomain]/[sitedir]/user or any other page that should be accessible.

10. (optional) Install git

Reference: http://docs.oseems.com/operatingsystem/ubuntu/install-git-client

Since I use git for development, I'll add that too:

> sudo apt-get install git-core


Check installation worked:

> sudo git --version


I use git on the command line but there are a number of GUI-based git clients including gitk, giggle, git-cola, git-gui, and gitg.

When setting up git repositories, use:


git config --global branch.autosetuprebase always


from Randy Fay's article on automatic git rebasing.

11. (optional) Install debugging, testing, and performance tools of your choice

Here are some from: https://klau.si/dev


> sudo apt-get install php5-xdebug php5-curl php-apc


Add a comment with your favorite debugging and testing tools...

12. (optional) Create public ssh key

I use a public ssh key so that I can login to other machines easily and access git repositories that require keys.

> ssh-keygen -t rsa


Use a passphrase if desired.

It will create a file .ssh/id_rsa.pub. Copy the .ssh/id_rsa.pub contents to the .ssh/authorized_keys file of the machine you want to connect to or to any repository host services.

Also copy any .ssh/id_rsa.pub contents from other machines to this new server's .ssh/authorized_keys so that connecting will be easy.

13. (optional) Copy bash files from other machine

I have a lot of bash settings and aliases configured that I like to use on all my development machines.

Copy .bash_profile, .bashrc, .bash_logout, and .bash_aliases from an older machine to the new one.

It is easy to get confused which machine you are on, so I usually update the .bash_profile file so that the prompt starts with a custom string to indicate this, e.g.

PS1="[mydev:\u:\W]\$ "

This will show the user for the \u and the leaf directory for the \W.

14. (optional) Copy vim settings from other machine

I'm using vim for editing and need to copy the .vimrc file and follow the directions to install the Drupal vimrc project .vim files:


> cd
> wget https://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/vimrc-7.x-1.x-dev.tar.gz
> cd .vim
> tar xzvf ~/vimrc-7.x-1.x-dev.tar.gz --strip-components 1 --exclude=README.txt


To use ctags in vim:

> sudo apt-get install exuberant-ctags


Check installation worked:

> ctags --version


15. (optional) Copy existing Drupal site to new server

Often I need to pull over one or more Drupal sites to my new machine like the following. I have scripts that do many of these steps, but this is a manual way to do it:

On old machine:

1. Create a dump of site database:
   
> cd [path-to-drupal-site]
> drush cc all
> mysqldump -u[user] -p[password] [database-name] > mydbdump.mysql
> gzip mysqldump.mysql
> mv mysqldump.mysql.gz ~

2. Create a tar ball of site files:
   
> cd
> tar czvf myfiles.tgz [path-to-drupal-site]/sites/default/files

3. Copy database .gz file and files .tgz file to new server

On new machine:

1. Set up code:
   
> cd /var/www
> git clone [user]@[domain]:[project] [sitedir]

2. Set up database:
   
> cd
> mysql -u [user] -p[password]
> create database [database-name];
> exit;
> gunzip mydbdump.mysql.gz
> mysql -u [user] -p[password] [database-name] < mydbdump.mysql
> mysql -u [user] -p[password] [database-name]
> show tables;
> exit;

3. Set up files:
   
> cd /var/www/[sitedir]/sites/default
> mv ~/myfiles.tgz .
> tar xzvf myfiles.tgz
> sudo chown -R [admin-user]:www-data files
> sudo chmod 775 files
> sudo chmod -R g+w files

4. Set up settings.php:
   
> cd /var/www/[sitedir]/sites/default
> cp default.settings.php settings.php
> vi settings.php
[edit mysql user, password, and database]

5. Clear cache and try it:
   
> drush cc all

   Go to http://[yourdomain]/[sitename]

16. (optional) php.ini settings

Reference: https://klau.si/dev

If this is for a development-only machine, the php.ini file can be adjusted to help with debugging, etc. Don't make these changes for non-development servers.


memory_limit = 256M
error_reporting = E_ALL | E_STRICT
display_errors = On
display_startup_errors = On
track_errors = On
html_errors = On
session.gc_probability = 1


17. (optional) Update settings.php with development settings

If you don't want to mess with your global php.ini settings (#16 above), then you can set these php settings within each Drupal site's settings.php file. You can also set variables such as turning off caching, e.g.


// display all errors and set high memory!
error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);
ini_set('display_errors', TRUE);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', TRUE);
ini_set('track_errors', TRUE);
ini_set('html_errors', TRUE);
ini_set('memory_limit', '256M');

$conf['securepages_enable'] = 0; // don't use secure pages
$conf['preprocess_js'] = 0; // don't zip js files
$conf['preprocess_css'] = 0; // don't zip css files
$conf['cache'] = 0; // no page caching
$conf['block_cache'] = 0; // no block caching
$conf['googleanalytics_account'] = "UA-XXXXXXX-X"; // don't track in GA

18. (optional) Create additional users

If you need more user accounts on your development server, first create the account and set the password:


> sudo useradd -d /home/[username] -m [username]
> sudo passwd [username]


Then add the user to the desired groups and verify the groups:


> sudo usermod -a -G [group] [username]
> id [username]