First step is to install MacPorts. They have a good tutorial for it so I won't be covering that subject here.

Before installing lighttpd you have to install lua.

sudo port install lua

Next install lighttpd using MacPorts:

sudo port install lighttpd +cml

Warning: The launchctl command creates following error Workaround Bonjour: Unknown error: 0.. I've read it's harmless - let's hope so :)

Automatically launch lighttpd on (re)boot:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.lighttpd.plist

Create the configuration file for lighttpd. You can copy the default config file by this command:

cp /opt/local/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf.default /opt/local/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

If you'r going to use the folders the default configure file of lighttpd suggests then create following directories:

sudo mkdir /www/pages
sudo mkdir /www/logs

You can run those commands without sudo, too.

If you want to use the same document root as the preinstalled Apache uses, make the following changes to the configuration file using your favourite editor, or vi: vi /opt/local/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

row
40.    server.document-root        = "/Library/WebServer/Documents/"
43.    server.errorlog             = "/Library/Logs"

Enabling mod_rewrite makes it (hopefully) possible to use the .htaccess magic… # Rewrite server.modules += (“mod_rewrite”)

If you'd like to use the user directories like /~username/ add these lines to the end of the /opt/local/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.config file:

# userdir
server.modules += ("mod_userdir")
userdir.path = "Sites"
userdir.basepath = "/Users/"

Lighttpd provides a directory listing that you probably want to use if you came from Apache, which has it enabled by default. So add these lines to the end of the config file:

# directory listing
dir-listing.activate = "enable"

Install MySQL with the following command:

sudo port install mysql5 +server

Warning: The launchctl command creates following error Workaround Bonjour: Unknown error: 0.. I've read it's harmless - let's hope so :)

And enable the automatic launch by:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.mysql5.plist

You can also install the non-automatic version by typing:

sudo port install mysql5

Set up the DB so that MySQL can be used.

sudo -u mysql mysql_install_db5

And root password for MySQL

mysqladmin5 -u root password [yourpw]

Install PHP with the following command:

sudo port install php5 +fastcgi +mysql5 +pear

Copy the php.ini file:

sudo cp /opt/local/etc/php.ini-dist /opt/local/etc/php.ini

Add this line to your /opt/local/etc/php.ini:

cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1

And add these lines to your /opt/local/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf file:

# FastCGI
server.modules += ("mod_fastcgi")
fastcgi.server = (
    ".php" => ((
        "bin-path" => "/opt/local/bin/php-cgi",
        "socket" => "/opt/local/var/run/php5/php.socket"
    ))
)

More about this subject here.

Save this file to somewhere in your project/application/site directory, f.e. [application]/config/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

Note that the following line:

magnet.attract-physical-path-to = ( CWD + "/../akelos/lib/AkActionController/lighttpd/akelos.lua" )

has to be relative path from your [project/application/site] directory to your akelos framework directory - including the first slash.

# Default configuration file for the lighttpd web server
# Start using ./script/server lighttpd

server.bind = "0.0.0.0"
server.port = 3000

static-file.exclude-extensions = ( ".fcgi", ".php", ".rb", "~", ".inc" )
index-file.names = ( "index.php" )

server.modules           = ( "mod_accesslog", "mod_fastcgi", "mod_compress", "mod_expire", "mod_magnet" )

server.document-root     = CWD + "/public/"

server.errorlog          = CWD + "/log/lighttpd.error.log"
accesslog.filename       = CWD + "/log/lighttpd.access.log"

fastcgi.server = (
    ".php" => ((
        "bin-path" => "/opt/local/bin/php-cgi",
        "socket" => CWD + "/tmp/php.socket"
    ))
)

$HTTP["url"] =~ "^/" {
    index-file.names = ( "index.php" )
    magnet.attract-physical-path-to = ( CWD + "/../akelos/lib/AkActionController/lighttpd/akelos.lua" )
}

compress.filetype        = ( "text/plain", "text/html", "text/css", "text/javascript" )
compress.cache-dir       = CWD + "/tmp/cache"

expire.url               = ( "/favicon.ico"  => "access 3 days", 
                             "/images/"      => "access 3 days", 
                             "/stylesheets/" => "access 3 days",
                             "/javascripts/" => "access 3 days" )

mimetype.assign             = (
    ".pdf"          =>      "application/pdf",
    ".sig"          =>      "application/pgp-signature",
    ".spl"          =>      "application/futuresplash",
    ".class"        =>      "application/octet-stream",
    ".ps"           =>      "application/postscript",
    ".torrent"      =>      "application/x-bittorrent",
    ".dvi"          =>      "application/x-dvi",
    ".gz"           =>      "application/x-gzip",
    ".pac"          =>      "application/x-ns-proxy-autoconfig",
    ".swf"          =>      "application/x-shockwave-flash",
    ".tar.gz"       =>      "application/x-tgz",
    ".tgz"          =>      "application/x-tgz",
    ".tar"          =>      "application/x-tar",
    ".zip"          =>      "application/zip",
    ".mp3"          =>      "audio/mpeg",
    ".m3u"          =>      "audio/x-mpegurl",
    ".wma"          =>      "audio/x-ms-wma",
    ".wax"          =>      "audio/x-ms-wax",
    ".ogg"          =>      "application/ogg",
    ".wav"          =>      "audio/x-wav",
    ".gif"          =>      "image/gif",
    ".jpg"          =>      "image/jpeg",
    ".jpeg"         =>      "image/jpeg",
    ".png"          =>      "image/png",
    ".xbm"          =>      "image/x-xbitmap",
    ".xpm"          =>      "image/x-xpixmap",
    ".xwd"          =>      "image/x-xwindowdump",
    ".css"          =>      "text/css",
    ".html"         =>      "text/html",
    ".htm"          =>      "text/html",
    ".js"           =>      "text/javascript",
    ".asc"          =>      "text/plain",
    ".c"            =>      "text/plain",
    ".cpp"          =>      "text/plain",
    ".log"          =>      "text/plain",
    ".conf"         =>      "text/plain",
    ".text"         =>      "text/plain",
    ".txt"          =>      "text/plain",
    ".dtd"          =>      "text/xml",
    ".xml"          =>      "text/xml",
    ".mpeg"         =>      "video/mpeg",
    ".mpg"          =>      "video/mpeg",
    ".mov"          =>      "video/quicktime",
    ".qt"           =>      "video/quicktime",
    ".avi"          =>      "video/x-msvideo",
    ".asf"          =>      "video/x-ms-asf",
    ".asx"          =>      "video/x-ms-asf",
    ".wmv"          =>      "video/x-ms-wmv",
    ".bz2"          =>      "application/x-bzip",
    ".tbz"          =>      "application/x-bzip-compressed-tar",
    ".tar.bz2"      =>      "application/x-bzip-compressed-tar"
)

# Making sure file uploads above 64k always work when using IE or Safari
# For more information, see http://trac.lighttpd.net/trac/ticket/360
$HTTP["useragent"] =~ "^(.*MSIE.*)|(.*AppleWebKit.*)$" {
  server.max-keep-alive-requests = 0
}

And this file to your akelos framework directory [akelos_framework]/lib/AkActionController/lighttpd/akelos.lua

function file_exists(path)
  local attr = lighty.stat(path)
  if (attr) then
      return true
  else
      return false
  end
end
function removePrefix(str, prefix)
  return str:sub(1,#prefix+1) == prefix.."/" and str:sub(#prefix+2)
end

-- local prefix = '/akelos'
local prefix = ''

if (not file_exists(lighty.env["physical.path"])) then
    request_uri = removePrefix(lighty.env["uri.path"], prefix)
    if request_uri then
      lighty.env["uri.path"]          = prefix .. "/index.php"
      local uriquery = lighty.env["uri.query"] or ""
      lighty.env["uri.query"] = uriquery .. (uriquery ~= "" and "&" or "") .. "ak=" .. request_uri
      lighty.env["physical.rel-path"] = lighty.env["uri.path"]
      lighty.env["request.orig-uri"]  = lighty.env["request.uri"]
      lighty.env["physical.path"]     = lighty.env["physical.doc-root"] .. lighty.env["physical.rel-path"]
    end
end

Create the folders [application]/tmp, ./tmp/cache, ./log

I needed to add

session.save_path = "/tmp"

to my /opt/local/etc/php.ini file

Run the lighttpd “project” server:

lighttpd -f config/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf -D

And go to http://localhost:3000/

For now, everything seems to be ok for me. Only problem is that lighttpd doesn't support .htaccess files and to get the pretty URIs work the magic should be added to /opt/local/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

With the “project server” approach everything - even the pretty URIs - works.