Editing Integration of CodeRunner with MAMP (section)

== Step 1: Finding the newest php executable ==

<pre lang="bash">
php=$(ls -d /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php*/bin/php | sort -V | tail -1)
</pre>

<table class="wikitable">
<tr>
<td> Segment </td>
<td> What it does </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <code>ls -d /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php*/bin/php</code> </td>
<td> Lists all files matching this path pattern </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <code>sort -V</code> </td>
<td> Sorts by '''version number''' </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <code>tail -1</code> </td>
<td> Takes the last line of the sorted output — the newest version </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <code>php=$(...)</code> </td>
<td> Stores the result into the variable <code>php</code> </td>
</tr>
</table>


'''What <code>ls -d</code> does''': Normally, <code>ls</code> on a directory lists its contents, but <code>-d</code> makes it list the matching path itself without descending into it. <code>php*</code> is a wildcard matching every folder under <code>php</code> that starts with <code>php</code>, for example:

<pre>
/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php8.1.33/bin/php
/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php8.2.29/bin/php
/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php8.3.14/bin/php
</pre>

'''What <code>sort -V</code> does''': Regular <code>sort</code> sorts as plain strings, which causes problems — <code>php8.10.0</code> would sort ''before'' <code>php8.2.0</code> (since character <code>1</code> is less than <code>2</code>). <code>-V</code> (version sort) understands version-number semantics and correctly places <code>8.10.0</code> after <code>8.2.0</code>.

'''<code>tail -1</code>''': Takes the last line of the sorted result — the entry with the highest version number. So the whole <code>$(...)</code> expression captures the full path to the newest installed MAMP php version.

After this line runs, the <code>php</code> variable holds something like:

<pre>
/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php8.2.29/bin/php
</pre>