Installing lighttpd in Centos 5 for x86_64

Lighttpd is a fast and optimized web server that prioritize performance. To install this web server application, some additional work need to be done because there is no rpm compiled version of this web server for x86_64 architecture yet. So we have to do the hard work by getting the spec file, compiling the source and all. Steps to be taken to successfully install lighttpd on Centos 5 x86_64 machine are as below:

1. get the rpm source file for lighttpd from here
2. install the requirement needed to compile the source: pcre-devel 6.6-1.1, mysql-devel 5.0.22-2.1 and lua-devel. The first two can be be installed from yum: $ yum install -y pcre-devel mysql-devel. The last one can be downloaded from here and its dependencies can downloaded from here. Install the last dependencies using: $ rpm -Uvh lua-5.1.2-1.el5.kb.x86_64.rpm lua-devel-5.1.2-1.el5.kb.x86_64.rpm
3. Install the lighttpd rpm source file: $ rpm -Uvh lighttpd-1.4.16-1.el5.src.rpm
4. The spec file for lighttpd will be saved into /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
5. Compile the spec file: $ rpmbuild -bb /usr/src/redhat/SPECS/lighttpd.spec
6. The rpm for lighttpd will be saved into /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/x86_64. Install lighttpd: $ rpm -Uvh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/x86_64/lighttpd-1.4.16-1.x86_64.rpm
7. Check whether your lighttpd has been installed: $ rpm -qa | grep lighttpd If the result is as picture, your lighttpd is installed