Installing XAMPP on a Flash Drive

[ROSEBLOOD]

Hey everyone,

Been using XAMPP on Windows for years, both on and off a flash drive. I am taking some college classes and would like to have the portability of a flash drive web server. The on problem is, the computers in class are Mac's, and I am unable to install XAMPP on my flash drive. I'm pretty new to Mac's. Never owned one, but I've been using them off and on for like a year.

Is there anyway to get XAMPP to work off my flash drive on a Mac?

~Roseblood

[Ron Newman]

Wouldn't it work to just make /Applications/XAMPP a symbolic link to a XAMPP directory on the flash drive?

[Nobbie]

Wouldn't it work to just make /Applications/XAMPP a symbolic link to a XAMPP directory on the flash drive?

Either that or simply mount it to the desired folder.

[ROSEBLOOD]

Maybe I'm not doing it right, but I've made a symbolic link of the XAMPP folder, and the app itself. But it still tells me that XAMPP is installed in the wrong area.

I'm a MAC newbie FYI.

~Roseblood

[Nobbie]

Maybe I'm not doing it right

Maybe.

How can we know?

[kelvSYC]

I'm discovering that I can't install XAMPP anywhere other than /Applications, and I've been wanting to do a webserver-on-a-stick deal with XAMPP. Obviously, making aliases (or symlinks) to XAMPP in /Applications doesn't work, since the Finder resolves all aliases BEFORE the application is launched (so launching the alias/symlink is pretty much the same as launching the original). I'm not sure if this is an issue with having an additional Apache installation (as Mac OS X has its own Apache installation, which can be controlled from System Preferences) or if it's just the XAMPP Control program, but it may explain why no other competing packages can be put on a stick as well, and why, say, using a fink or macports installation of Apache requires you to shut down any other running Apache processes.