This post shows students and new users how to install the Laravel framework on Ubuntu Linux with Apache. Laravel is an open-source PHP web application framework with cool built-in features such as routing, authentication, sessions, caching, and unit testing.
Laravel can be used as an alternative to the CodeIgniter framework. It is designed for ease of use to allow developers to create great applications. If you’re looking for a simple PHP framework to design your next application, you’ll find Laravel useful.
Also, for students and new users learning Linux, Ubuntu Linux is the easiest place to start learning. Ubuntu is the modern, open-source Linux operating system for desktops, servers, and other devices.
To get started with installing Laravel on Ubuntu Linux, follow the steps below:
How to install Apache on Ubuntu Linux
A web server is unnecessary if you’re not using Laravel on a production server. If you want to run Laravel with a web server, then Apache is a great option since it’s the most popular web server used today.
To install Apache on Ubuntu, run the commands below.
sudo apt update sudo apt install apache2
After installing, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable the Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop apache2.service sudo systemctl start apache2.service sudo systemctl enable apache2.service
How to install PHP on Ubuntu Linux
Laravel is based on PHP, so you must install PHP and related modules. At the time of this writing, PHP 7.4 is the default in Ubuntu repositories.
To install PHP and related modules, run the commands below
sudo apt install php7.4 libapache2-mod-php7.4 php7.4-intl php7.4-imap php7.4-mbstring php7.4-xmlrpc php7.4-soap php7.4-gd php7.4-xml php7.4-cli php7.4-zip curl
PHP should be installed and ready to use.
How to install Composer to download Laravel
Now that PHP is installed, you can download Laravel via Composer. Composer is a dependency manager for PHP, which we will use to download Laravel core and related Laravel components.
To do that, run the commands below to install Composer.
curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
After installing Composer, change to the Apache root directory and run Composer to download Laravel code packages and create a Laravel project folder called MyProject.
Laravel will automatically create a file named .env. This file includes custom configuration variables, including the database credentials. If you’re using a database server, use this file to add its name and password.
cd /var/www/
sudo composer create-project laravel/laravel MyProject --prefer-dist
How to configure Apache to support Laravel
Finally, configure the Apahce2 site configuration file for Laravel. This file will control how users access Laravel content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called laravel.conf.
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/laravel.conf
Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your domain name and directory root location.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin@example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/MyProject/public
ServerName example.com
<Directory /var/www/MyProject/public>
Options +FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Save the file and exit.
How to enable Laravel Apache vhost
After configuring the VirtualHost above, please enable it by running the commands below.
sudo a2ensite laravel.conf
After running the commands above, a new project directory will be created. Run the commands below to set the correct permissions for that directory.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/MyProject/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/MyProject/
Next, run the command below to restart Apache by running the commands below.
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Finally, open your browser and browse to the domain name added in the configuration file above.
You should then see Laravel’s default home screen. You can begin building your web apps via Laravel on Ubuntu.
That should do it!
Conclusion:
This post showed you how to install the Laravel framework on Ubuntu Linux with Apache. Please use the comment form below if you find any errors above or have something to add.
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