How to Set Up a Mac OS X / macOS System for Local Development

Category
Developers
Site Administrators
Drupal Version
Version Agnostic
Tags
installing Drupal

This process allows you to set up your Mac as a faux-server for local development.

  1. Download Xcode from the App Store:  https://developer.apple.com/xcode/
  2. Install command line tools: http://osxdaily.com/2014/02/12/install-command-line-tools-mac-os-x/
  3. Install and configure wget: http://coolestguidesontheplanet.com/install-and-configure-wget-on-os-x/

Do note that Drupal 8 requires PHP 7, and only MacOS 10.14+ (Mojave or later) come with PHP 7 – all earlier versions have some form of PHP 5.  If you are running and older version of MacOS, you can either use HomeBrew to try to upgrade PHP, or look at one of the options to install a virtual development environment on your local computer.