LAMP owes its name to an acronym derived from the four software components that make up its infrastructure: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. These combined elements provide a server infrastructure that is able to both host and generate dynamic websites. The individual components complement and build upon one another, hence the software bundle’s name, LAMP stack.
The webserver, Apache, runs on Linux. Although this server is not able to interpret dynamic content, it is programmed to take into account that the script interpreter PHP is able to carry out this task. For this reason, the server sends the respective source code, including information on the website’s visitor behavior, to the PHP interpreter. This interpreter in turn accesses the database, MySQL. The finished result of this process is then sent back to Apache where it is shown to the visitor in its respective web browser.
Due to their reasonable prices and easy availability, LAMP servers have proven to be a popular option for web developers. Individual server components can be replaced with comparable alternatives. Operating systems like Windows (WAMP) or Mac OS (MAMP) can also be used. The web server nginx is often used in lieu of Apache. For database purposes, MySQL and MariaDB are used at similar rates. Additional programming languages, are: Perl, Ruby, and Python.