LAMP (software bundle)

LAMP is an acronym for a solution stack of free, open source software, originally coined from the first letters of Linux (operating system), Apache HTTP Server, MySQL (database software), and PHP, Python or Perl (scripting language), principal components to build a viable general purpose web server.

The precise combination of software included in a LAMP package may vary, especially with respect to the web scripting software, as PHP may be replaced by Perl or Python. Similar terms exist for essentially the same software suite (AMP) running on other operating systems, such as MS Windows (WAMP), Mac OS (MAMP), Solaris (SAMP), or OpenBSD (OAMP).

Though the original authors of these programs did not design them all to work specifically with each other, the development philosophy and tool sets are shared and were developed in close conjunction. The software combination has become popular because it is free of cost, open-source, and therefore easily adaptable, and because of the ubiquity of its components which are bundled with most current Linux distributions.

When used in combination they represent a solution stack of technologies that support application servers.

History

Michael Kunze coined the acronym LAMP in an article for the German computing magazine c't in April 1998. The article aimed to show that a bundle of free software could provide a viable alternative to commercial packages. Knowing the IT-world's love of acronyms, Kunze came up with LAMP as a marketing-like term to increase the popularity of free software. O'Reilly and MySQL AB have made the term popular among English-speakers. Indeed, MySQL AB has since based some of its marketing efforts on the popularity of the LAMP stack.

The scripting component of the LAMP stack has its origins in the Common Gateway Interface protocol that became popular in web servers in the early 1990s. This technology allows the user of a web browser to execute a program on the web server, and thereby receive dynamic as well as static content. Often programmers would use scripting languages such as Perl for these programs because of their ability to manipulate text streams from multiple sources easily and efficiently.

Software components

Linux

Main article: Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system kernel.

Apache

Main article: Apache HTTP Server

Apache is a free software/open source web server, the most popular in use.

MySQL

Main article: MySQL

MySQL is a multithreaded, multi-user, SQL database management system (DBMS) with more than eleven million installations. Since 16 January 2008, owned by Sun Microsystems, as of 20 April 2009, Oracle Corporation has agreed to purchase Sun Microsystems.

Perl, PHP, or Python

Main articles: Perl, PHP, and Python (programming language)

PHP is a reflective programming language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages. PHP is used mainly in server-side application software. Perl and Python can be used similarly.

Deployment

The components for a LAMP server can be built and installed from source code, but this requires more effort and technical proficiency than other automated approaches such as installing them through a Linux distribution's package management system or deploying a ready-to-use TurnKey LAMP stack appliance which does not require any manual configuration or setup.

Variants and alternatives

Main article: List of AMP packages

See also: List of web application frameworks

With the growing use of LAMP, variations and retronyms appeared for other combinations of operating system, web server, database, and software language.

Windows alternatives to LAMP include WIMP and WAMP.

See also

• List of AMP packages

Apple Macintosh OS X alternative to LAMP is MAMP.

External links

• Pre-integrated LAMP server based on Ubuntu
• Install a LAMP server on Ubuntu Linux
• Install a LAMP server on Debian GNU/Linux
• Install a LAMP server on SUSE Linux
• Install a LAMP server on CentOS 5 Linux