Introduction
If you’ve never heard about HHVM, it’s an open-source Virtual Machine designed for executing programs written in Hack and PHP. For performance reasons, it uses a just-in-time compilation process.
Just like other similar projects, HHVM performs execution in a two-phase approach: first, it compiles PHP and Hack in an intermediate bytecode, then this bytecode is translated into AMD64 machine code at runtime, with a JIT (just-in-time) compiler. This tutorial demonstrates how to install WordPress with MariaDB, Nginx and, of course, HHVM on Ubuntu 16.04.
Prerequisites
As stated on the official page, HHVM supports only 64 bit architectures, so you need Ubuntu 16.04 Server 64bit.
Install Nginx
First, we install Nginx, which is available in Ubuntu repositories. Execute the following command:
# apt install nginx
The installation process is very quick. When it is complete, start Nginx:
# systemctl start nginx
Install and configure MariaDB
MariaDB is also available in the repository, so just use apt:
# apt-get install mariadb-client mariadb-server
MariaDB is a MySQL fork, and it uses its name for the systemd service:
# systemctl start mysql
Set MariaDB root password to secure your database:
# mysql_secure_installation
You will be asked for the following configuration parameters:
Enter current password for root (enter for none): PRESS ENTER
Set root password? [Y/n] Y
ENTER YOUR PASSWORD
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] Y
Once that step is complete you can access the MariaDB database with your password:
$ mysql -u root -p
Use the MariaDB prompt to create a new database for WordPress. In this tutorial, we use mywordpressdb as the database name, and wordpressuser as the username for the WP installation. So our code looks like this:
mysql> CREATE DATABASE mywordpressdb;
mysql> CREATE USER wordpressuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'my_strong_password';
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mywordpressdb.* to wordpressuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'my_strong_password';
Next, you can flush privileges and exit:
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
mysql> EXIT;
Install HHVM
HHVM is not available in the Ubuntu repository, so, first, it’s necessary to add an external one. This requires editing /etc/apt/sources.list and updating repos. Just execute the following commands:
$ wget -O - http://dl.hhvm.com/conf/hhvm.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
$ echo deb http://dl.hhvm.com/ubuntu xenial main | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hhvm.list
# apt update
Now, install HHVM with apt:
# apt install -y hhvm
Configure and test HHVM
After installation, in /usr/share/hhvm there is a script for configuring the Nginx web server to use HHVM. Just execute the following:
# /usr/share/hhvm/install_fastcgi.sh
This is a quick process, at the end of which you can start HHVM:
# systemctl start hhvm.service
If you need to run web scripts, and you want it to start at boot, execute the command:
# update-rc.d hhvm defaults
You can decide to use HHVM for /usr/bin/php even if you have a php-cli already installed:
# /usr/bin/update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/php php /usr/bin/hhvm 60
Next, you can test HHVM in different ways (for example, you can call it on existing PHP scripts present in your filesystem, just like php-cli). In this case, we use it on the web server. So, create a file called info.php in /var/www/html and enter the following lines:
<?php
phpinfo();
?>
Edit Nginx Virtual Host file, adding in it index.php:
# $EDITOR /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
Here:
index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
After saving, exit, and test. With your browser, go to http://localhost/info.php
Here, you should see HHVM on top of the page: this means that it is working as expected.
Install WordPress
Now, you must install WordPress. This is quite easy, just execute the commands:
# cd /var/www/html
# wget wordpress.org/latest.zip
# unzip latest.zip
The unzip command will create a new folder, wordpress. Move all of its content into /var/www/html
# mv wordpress/* .
# rm -rf wordpress/
Change the owner for the WordPress files:
# find . -type d -exec chown www-data:www-data {} \;
# find . -type f -exec chown www-data:www-data {} \;
Rename wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php, then edit it:
# mv wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
# $EDITOR wp-config.php
Here, change database informations using the one you specified in the MariaDB configuration process:
DB_NAME = mywordpressdb
DB_USER = wordpressuser
DB_PASSWORD = my_strong_password
Restart the server:
# systemctl restart nginx
After that, go to your server IP, and you will be redirected to the WordPress installation, which is totally created in your web browser.
After filling out all of the required forms, WordPress will be ready for you! And that’s all you need for creating you website with WP on an Ubuntu 16.04 running Nginx, with HHVM.
https://www.unixmen.com/install-wordpress-nginx-hhvm-mariadb-ubuntu-16-04/