title: Set up Apache for local development/testing?
body: <p>I've been impressed by the screencasts for Rails that demonstrate the built-in web server, and database to allow development and testing to occur on the local machine. How can I get an instance of Apache to execute a project directory as its DocumentRoot, and maybe serve up the files on port 8080 (or something similar)?</p>
  <p>The reason why I'm asking is that I'm going to be trying out CodeIgniter, and I would like to use it for multiple projects. I would rather not clutter up my machine's DocumentRoot with each one. Suggestions on how to do database migrations are also welcome.</p>
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  <p>Thank you for your responses so far. I should clarify that I'm on Mac OS X. It looks like  WAMP is Windows-only. Also, XAMPP looks like a great way to install Apache and many other web tools, but I don't see a way of loading up an instance to serve up a project directory. Mac OS X has both Apache and PHP installed - I'm just looking for a way to get it to serve up a project on a non-standard port.</p>
  <p>I just found <a href="http://www.mamp.info/en/mamp-pro/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MAMP Pro</a> which does what I want, but a more minimalist approach would be better if it's possible. Does anyone have a <code>httpd.conf</code> file that can be edited and dropped into a project directory?</p>
  <p>Also, sorry that I just threw in that database migration question. What I'm hoping to find is something that will enable me to push schema changes onto a live server without losing the existing data. I suspect that this is difficult and highly dependent on environmental factors.</p>