I do all of my development on a Parallels virtual machine 1) to keep my host operating system stable at all times; and 2) so I can run the same operating system as our production servers (to reduce the differences in configuration & chance of a deployment issue). I'm a fan of RPM based operating systems (vs APT) so I prefer Centos. To improve performance I do not run a GUI (KDE, Gnome, etc) and I install the bare minimum set of packages. My linux server philosophy has always been: if you don't use it or don't know what it does, don't install it; and if you don't know it does, Google it. My preferred IDE is Eclipse, so I install that on my host operating system (OSX). So how do I edit my files on my virtual machine? Samba. Here's how I setup a basic samba configuration:
Install Samba (as necessary)
sudo yum install sambaCreate a backup of the original samba configuration file, just in case
sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.origHere's a basic smb.conf file I use with a description for each config setting:
[global]
# workgroup should match your network that your host operating system is on
workgroup = MYWORKGROUP
# server string is description of samba server
server string = MY CENTOS VM
# default security level
security = user
# performance tuning
socket options - TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
[homes]
# share comment for user's home directories
comment = Home Directories
# hides shares to users without permission
browseable = no
# allows privileged users to modify files
writable = yes
[Vhosts]
# I share my entire vhosts folder
comment = Vhosts
# to be more secure, I only allow my primary user from my host operating system access
valid users = eric
# allows privileged users to modify files
writeable = yes
# this is the path to my Apache vhosts
path = /var/www/vhosts
# setting a umask will ensure permissions will be set correctly on files created across a samba share
directory mask = 775
create mask = 664Create a samba user that matches your host operating system
sudo smbpasswd -a ericRestart Samba
sudo /etc/init.d/smb restartNow, from your host operating you can connect to your vhosts share and edit your files. From OSX, I use the "connect to server" command in the finder menu and specify the IP address of my virtual machine. The samba share will now be mounted in /Volumes/IPOFYOURVM. When I create a new project in Eclipse, I uncheck the default location and choose to create the project on my virtual machine. tah-dah
