Moving from MAMP

MAMP gives you Apache, MySQL and PHP in one folder on macOS and Windows. Lerd covers the same ground on macOS and Linux, with automatic .test domains, trusted HTTPS, a PHP version per project and shared databases, and it is free and open source.

The one real difference is the web server. MAMP serves through Apache, which reads .htaccess files. Lerd serves through nginx, which does not. Most projects need no changes at all, and this page shows how to carry over the ones that do.

Every MAMP feature, and the Lerd equivalent

What you used in MAMP	The same thing in Lerd
localhost:8888/myapp	https://myapp.test, one domain per project with no port and no hosts file edits
Projects inside htdocs	Projects anywhere, lerd link serves the directory you run it in
MAMP Pro hosts	Every linked project is a host, lerd park ~/code links a whole folder at once
MAMP Pro SSL	lerd secure, an mkcert certificate trusted by your system and browsers
PHP version per host	lerd isolate 8.4, or picked up from composer.json
MySQL on port 8889, user root, password root	lerd service start mysql, shared by every site, wired into .env by lerd env
phpMyAdmin	lerd service preset phpmyadmin once, then lerd service start phpmyadmin, or any database client on the published port
.htaccess rules	An nginx override per site, see below
php.ini from the MAMP menu	lerd php:ini <version>, or System → PHP in the web dashboard

Moving a project

1. Export your databases. In MAMP's phpMyAdmin, open each database and use the Export tab, or run MAMP's own mysqldump against port 8889 with user root and password root.

2. Install Lerd and start it.

curl -fsSL https://lerd.sh/install.sh | bash
lerd start

3. Link the project. Copy it out of htdocs to wherever you keep code, then:

cd ~/code/myapp
lerd link
lerd secure

Lerd detects the framework, sets the document root, writes the nginx vhost and registers myapp.test, and lerd secure issues the certificate that serves it over HTTPS. A project whose entry point is not in the framework's usual folder can set public_dir in .lerd.yaml.

4. Point the app at Lerd's services. Start MySQL and let lerd env rewrite the database, cache and mail entries in .env, so the MAMP host, port 8889 and root password are replaced with Lerd's. On WordPress it writes the same values into wp-config.php.

lerd service start mysql
lerd env

5. Restore the database. Now that the project points at Lerd's MySQL, import the dump into it:

lerd db:import myapp.sql

Do you need to translate your .htaccess?

Open the project's .htaccess. If all it contains is the usual "send everything that is not a file to index.php" block, you are done. That is the standard file Laravel, Symfony, WordPress, Drupal and most other frameworks ship, and Lerd's vhost already does the same thing:

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

Lerd also blocks access to .htaccess and .htpasswd files, just as Apache does.

Anything beyond that, redirects, blocked paths, headers, custom error pages, has to be written as nginx directives in the site's override. Open it from the sliders button in the site's address bar in the web dashboard, or with lerd nginx edit. Every save is checked with nginx -t before it goes live, so a typo is rejected rather than taking the site down.

Translating common rules

Apache .htaccess	nginx override
Redirect 301 /old /new	location = /old { return 301 /new; }
RewriteRule ^blog/(.*)$ /news/$1 [R=301,L]	rewrite ^/blog/(.*)$ /news/$1 permanent;
RewriteRule ^shop/(.*)$ /store.php?item=$1 [L] (internal, no redirect)	rewrite ^/shop/(.*)$ /store.php?item=$1 last;
Forcing HTTPS with RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off	Nothing, lerd secure already redirects HTTP to HTTPS
<Files "config.php"> Require all denied </Files>	location = /config.php { deny all; }
Denying a folder, RedirectMatch 403 ^/private/	location ^~ /private/ { deny all; }
ErrorDocument 404 /404.php	error_page 404 /404.php;
Header set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"	add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always;
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 month"	location ~* \.png$ { expires 30d; }
Options -Indexes	Nothing, nginx never lists directories unless told to
php_value upload_max_filesize 64M	Not nginx, raise it with lerd php:ini

A few things to keep in mind while translating:

• Paths start with a slash in nginx. Apache strips the leading / before matching a RewriteRule in .htaccess, nginx does not, so ^blog/ becomes ^/blog/.
• [L] becomes last, [R=301] becomes permanent, [R=302] becomes redirect.
• Don't redefine location /. The vhost already has one, and nginx refuses a duplicate. Use a more specific location, or a rewrite at the top level of the override, which runs before nginx picks a location.
• RewriteCond has no direct equivalent. Most conditions become an if on a variable, for example if ($http_user_agent ~* badbot) { return 403; }, or a map. Keep these small, nginx's if is not a general purpose branch.
• Rules from a .htaccess in a subfolder apply only under that folder in Apache. Put the folder into the pattern instead, rewrite ^/subfolder/(.*)$ ..., rather than wrapping the rules in a location ^~ /subfolder/ block: ^~ stops nginx from checking the PHP location, so .php files under it would be sent as plain text instead of run.

WordPress

WordPress's own # BEGIN WordPress block is the front controller rule above, so permalinks work as soon as the site is linked. Three things are worth checking:

• The site address. The imported database still holds the MAMP address, such as http://localhost:8888/myblog, and WordPress redirects to it. lerd secure sets WP_HOME in wp-config.php to the new address, set WP_SITEURL next to it yourself (see Finish the HTTPS wiring). Links to the old address inside posts and pages stay as they are, so run a search and replace over the database, for example with the Better Search Replace plugin.

• Anything outside that block. Redirects you added by hand or through a plugin like Redirection's Apache mode, and hardening rules from security plugins, sit above or below it. Translate them with the table above.

• Plugins that write .htaccess for you. Caching plugins (W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, WP Rocket) and security plugins (Wordfence, iThemes / Solid Security, All In One WP Security) keep writing those rules, and nginx keeps ignoring them. The site still works, but the rule the plugin thinks is active is not. Most of these plugins have an nginx mode or print the nginx equivalent in their settings, paste that into the override instead.

See the WordPress walkthrough for the rest of a WordPress setup on Lerd.

Rules that do not translate

Some .htaccess features have no clean nginx counterpart. Password protection with AuthType Basic needs a password file the nginx container can read, and per-directory php_flag settings have no per-folder equivalent in PHP-FPM. If a project leans on these, the simpler route is usually to move the rule into the application itself.

Next steps

• Nginx overrides, the full reference for the per-site editor
• Quick start, a project served in two commands
• Full comparison against Laravel Herd, Laragon, DDEV and Lando