Install HF Local

HF Local comes as an installer for each system. On Windows the setup asks which servers you want and installs them straight away; on macOS and Linux (and for anything you add later) you download them from the Components page.

Where: download HF Local from https://hostfog.com

Windows

You need Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. No administrator rights are needed.

1. Run HF-Local-<version>-Windows-Setup.exe. If Windows shows Windows protected your PC, make sure you downloaded the file from https://hostfog.com, then click More info and Run anyway. (Windows shows this for a download it doesn't know yet; it stops once a version has been downloaded enough.)
2. Click through the welcome page and the licence.
3. On Choose Components, tick what you want. HF Local itself, Apache and PHP are always installed. Ticked by default: Nginx, Node.js, Composer, MariaDB (MySQL) and phpMyAdmin; PostgreSQL and Redis are not. Click a name to see what it is for.
4. Choose the folder (C:\hflocal by default; not inside Program Files) and click Install.
5. The setup copies HF Local, then downloads and installs every component you ticked, checking each against its published checksum. The list on the page shows each step and the download progress. This needs an internet connection and takes a few minutes.
6. Click Finish. HF Local opens, ready to start.

If a component can't be downloaded during setup (no internet, a server busy), the setup still finishes and says so; HF Local installs the missing ones the first time it opens. You can add or remove any of them later on the Components page.

From a terminal the same is hostfog install <component>… (see Command line).

Or use the portable zip: unzip it to C:\hflocal. Don't unzip it inside Program Files, where Windows blocks writing files.

Apache and PHP need the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (x64). HF Local warns you when it is missing and links to the download. The window uses Microsoft Edge WebView2, which is part of Windows 10 and 11.

The installer also trusts HF Local's own HTTPS certificate, so https:// sites open without a warning. Click Yes when Windows asks.

Offline installer (no internet needed)

HF-Local-<version>-Windows-Setup-Offline.exe is the same setup with every version of every component inside: Apache, Nginx, every PHP series, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Redis, Node.js, phpMyAdmin, Adminer, Composer and WordPress, plus Microsoft's Visual C++ runtime. Use it on a computer without internet, behind a strict company network, or to install on many computers from a USB stick.

1. Run HF-Local-<version>-Windows-Setup-Offline.exe and choose the components, as with the normal setup.
2. The setup installs the Visual C++ runtime if it's missing (Windows asks for permission once).
3. On first start HF Local installs the chosen components from its downloads folder: no download happens. PHP starts with the recommended version.
4. To switch versions later (Components › version menu), HF Local takes them from the same folder, still without internet.

Every file was checked against its official checksum when the setup was made; downloads\SHA256SUMS lists them, and HF Local checks a file again before using it when its checksum is known. When the computer is online later, updates work as usual.

The licences of the included components are in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt in the HF Local folder.

macOS

You need macOS 11 or newer, on Apple Silicon or Intel.

1. Unzip HF-Local-<version>-macOS.zip and drag HF Local.app into your Applications folder.
2. Open it. Because the app isn't from the App Store, macOS asks first:
   • macOS 15 and newer: if it says the app can't be opened, open System Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll down, click Open Anyway next to HF Local and confirm.
   • macOS 14 and older: Control-click the app, choose Open, then Open.
3. If macOS says the app "is damaged", run xattr -cr "/Applications/HF Local.app" in Terminal and open it again.

On a Mac, HF Local installs Apache, PHP and MariaDB with Homebrew. If you don't have Homebrew, the app shows a Get Homebrew button; install it, then reopen HF Local.

The first time HF Local opens, it trusts its HTTPS certificate. Your Mac asks for your password once.

Linux

Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint and similar:

sudo apt install ./hf-local_1.0.0_amd64.deb

Use the _arm64.deb on ARM computers.

Any other Linux (no administrator rights needed):

tar xzf hf-local-1.0.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz
cd hf-local-1.0.0-linux-amd64
./install.sh

Then open HF Local from your apps menu, or run hostfog-panel.

On Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora, HF Local installs Apache, PHP and MariaDB from your system's packages and asks for your password once. It then switches off the system's own Apache and MariaDB services, because it runs its own copies. On other distributions, install Apache, PHP (with its Apache module) and MariaDB with your package manager; HF Local finds them by itself.

Note: on Linux, Apache uses port 8080 (http://localhost:8080) and HTTPS port 8443, because only administrators may use ports below 1024. You can change this in Settings.

First start

1. On Windows, what you chose in the setup is already installed. Otherwise open Components and click Install on each server you need: HF Local downloads Apache, PHP, MariaDB and phpMyAdmin, checks them and sets them up. This takes a few minutes.
2. Open Control panel and click Start all.
3. Click Open site on Apache to see http://localhost.

The MySQL user is root, with the password password on a new install. Change it with Databases › Root password.

The HF Local folder

Everything HF Local uses lives in one folder: C:\hflocal on Windows, ~/hflocal on macOS and Linux.

Note: HF Local was called HF Server before. An existing install keeps its folder, with your sites and databases where they are: on Windows the setup updates the folder it was installed in (C:\hfserver), and on macOS and Linux ~/hfserver (or ~/HostFog from an even older version) keeps being used. HF Local only makes ~/hflocal when neither exists.

On Windows the servers are in the same folder too (apache, php, mariadb, phpmyadmin…), and you can move or rename the whole folder: HF Local fixes the paths the next time it starts a server.

On macOS and Linux

The app opens in a browser window (an app window of an installed browser, or your default browser). Closing that window doesn't stop your servers: open HF Local again to get the window back, or click Quit HF Local to stop everything.

Related

• Components
• Control panel
• Uninstall