I've installed mandrake 10 on my computer and went ahead to install the apache server, mysql, the php mod, and whatever else i recognized. It all works well enough, if i type http://localhost/ into my browser i see the apache page etc. My question is: now what? How can i begin testing my php and mysql scripts. Everything i read has apache installed in some other place than mine i guess. Mine is under /var/.
I don't know what to configure to allow me to start putting files into the www folder I don't have permission unless I am root and if I log into the gui as root I don't have a graphical file browser anyway! I am confused by the whole setup...any suggestions?

Thank you all in advance.

Sounds like you don't need to configure anything. Just start moving your files into the htdocs directory.

This will be the directory listed as the "DocumentRoot" in your apache config file.

Try with regular html files first, then try a php script. If it doesn't work then tell us the errors...

The thing I want to know is do i HAVE to be under root to place these files? I'd rather not be.

Ok, what I did, is create a group called web. chown -R your htdocs directory so that all the files group is web, and make sure that group has read/write permissions. Add your regular user to group web, then you can operate on them as your regular user.