- Install Xcode from the Mac App Store — don't install the version from Apple's Developer Site, you won't get delta updates;
- Install Homebrew — it's a package manager that will let you easily install, update and remove services and other tools;
- Use brew to install mysql:
brew install mysql
; - If you want to use
.dev
and other wildcard local domains, there are plenty of guides but be sure to following something that is specifically for OS X Mavericks. The DNS services have changed a lot between major releases of the OS, and the instructions for pre-10.9 systems won't work. This one looks fine to me (and uses homebrew to install dependencies). - Don't fuck with the default web root — just roll with the default of whatever you choose to use. Usually on OS X, this is
/Library/WebServer/Documents
.
I prefer Nginx — it's smaller, lighter and faster than Apac