What are the best practices for setting up a local web server to run PHP smoothly?

Setting up a local web server to run PHP smoothly involves installing a server software like Apache or Nginx, setting up PHP on the server, and configuring the server to handle PHP files correctly. It is also important to ensure that the server environment matches the requirements of the PHP application being developed.

// Sample PHP code snippet for setting up a local web server to run PHP smoothly

// Apache server configuration for running PHP files
<FilesMatch \.php$>
    SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</FilesMatch>

// Nginx server configuration for running PHP files
location ~ \.php$ {
    include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
}