macOS Catalina (10.15) ships with Apache and several scripting languages preinstalled, but the following setup uses Nginx, Homebrew PHP 7.4, MySQL 8, and Redis. The default shell is zsh; commands assume ~/.zshrc for shell configuration.

Terminal and IDE

• Install iTerm2 by dragging the app into /Applications.
• Install PhpStorm if an IDE is desired.

Xcode and Command Line Tools

Install Aple’s toolchain and except licenses:

xcode-select --install
# Then open Xcode once and accept the license

Homebrew

Install Homebrew and initialize your shell:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Optional: switch to a mirror (example uses USTC). Adjust if needed:

cd "$(brew --repo)" && git remote set-url origin https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/brew.git
cd "$(brew --repo)/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core" && \
  git remote set-url origin https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/homebrew-core.git
echo 'export HOMEBREW_BOTTLE_DOMAIN=https://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/homebrew-bottles' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

PHP 7.4 (Homebrew)

Install and run PHP-FPM. Prefer a versioned formula to avoid system PHP:

brew install php@7.4
brew services start php@7.4

Ensure the brewed PHP precedes the system PHP in PATH:

echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/php@7.4/bin:/usr/local/opt/php@7.4/sbin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Verify:

php -v
php-fpm -v

MySQL

Install, start, and secure the server:

brew install mysql
brew services start mysql
mysql -u root
# In another step, run the secure setup
mysql_secure_installation

Redis

Install and start Redis:

brew install redis
brew services start redis
redis-cli ping   # Expect PONG

Nginx

Install and start Nginx:

brew install nginx
brew services start nginx

Inspect default paths (note the -V output includes the nginx.conf location):

nginx -V

Open the main config to confirm it includes a servers directory include:

vi /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
# Look for: include servers/*;

Create a virtual host in the included directory:

cd /usr/local/etc/nginx/servers
vi demo.conf

Example server block integrating PHP-FPM and a typical front controller:

upstream local_phpfpm {
    server 127.0.0.1:9000;  # Homebrew php-fpm default
}

server {
    listen 8088;
    server_name localhost;
    root /Users/$USER/Sites/demo/public;
    index index.php index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param DOCUMENT_ROOT $realpath_root;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_pass local_phpfpm;
    }

    location ~ /\. {
        deny all;
    }
}

Create a simple PHP entry point:

mkdir -p ~/Sites/demo/public
cat > ~/Sites/demo/public/index.php <<'PHP'
<?php
header('Content-Type: text/plain');
echo "Nginx + PHP-FPM (Catalina)\n";
phpinfo();
PHP

Test and reload Nginx:

nginx -t
brew services restart nginx

Open http://localhost:8088 in a browser.

Composer

Install Composer and configure an optional mirror:

php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer','composer-setup.php');"
php composer-setup.php --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
rm composer-setup.php

# Optional China mirror
composer config -g repo.packagist composer https://mirrors.aliyun.com/composer/

PHP Redis Extension (phpredis)

Two common approaches are shown below.

Install via PECL

Make sure pecl resolves to the brewed PHP toolchain, then install:

pecl install redis

Enable the extension in php.ini and restart PHP-FPM:

INI_FILE=$(php --ini | awk -F': ' '/Loaded Configuration File/ {print $2}')
[ -n "$INI_FILE" ] && echo "extension=redis.so" | sudo tee -a "$INI_FILE"
brew services restart php@7.4
php -m | grep -i redis

Build from Source

Compile a specific release manually:

VER=5.1.0
curl -LO https://pecl.php.net/get/redis-${VER}.tgz
tar -xzf redis-${VER}.tgz
cd redis-${VER}
phpize
./configure --with-php-config="$(command -v php-config)"
make -j4
sudo make install

INI_FILE=$(php --ini | awk -F': ' '/Loaded Configuration File/ {print $2}')
[ -n "$INI_FILE" ] && echo "extension=redis.so" | sudo tee -a "$INI_FILE"
brew services restart php@7.4
php -m | grep -i redis

Service Management and Inspection

• List managed daemons: brew services list
• Restart individual services: brew services restart php@7.4, brew services restart nginx, brew services restart mysql, brew services restart redis
• Validate Nginx config anytime: nginx -t