Setting Up a Local PHP Development Server for Testing with the Built‑in PHP Server

The author frequently runs small PHP snippets for testing and wants to avoid affecting the main office environment, so a separate PHP instance is installed locally on Windows or inside a Linux virtual machine.

First, create a www directory in the home folder, add test scripts such as index.php and info.php , and start the built‑in PHP web server:

# In home directory create www
mkdir www
cd www

# Create test scripts (index.php, info.php)
# Start a web server
php -S 192.168.204.151:8000
# Note: when running in a VM use the IP address; on Windows you can use localhost:8000

Open a browser and request http://192.168.204.151:8000/ to see the default page, and http://192.168.204.151:8000/info.php to view the script output.

To specify a different document root, create a subdirectory (e.g., test ) and start the server with the -t option:

# Create test directory and script
mkdir ~/www/test
php -S 192.168.204.151:8000 -t test/

For more advanced routing, a router.php file can be used to intercept requests. The router returns static files directly and otherwise prints a welcome message:

<?php
if (preg_match('/\.(?:png|jpg|jpeg|gif|txt)$/', $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"])) {
    return false; // serve the requested file directly
} else {
    echo "<p>Welcome to PHP</p>";
}
?>

After creating the router and some test files, start the server with the router script:

php -S 192.168.204.151:8000 router.php

Requests such as http://192.168.204.151:8000/ now pass through router.php , while requests for static files (e.g., hello.txt ) return the file contents.

In summary, using PHP's built‑in server in a local or VM environment provides a convenient way to test PHP code without affecting production systems.