Set up Memcached distributed memory object caching system

Memcached is an in-memory key-value store for small chunks of arbitrary data (strings, objects) from results of database calls, API calls, or page rendering. It’s used as a backend for persistent cache implementation on some older projects (newer projects mostly use Redis).

1 Install

1.1 If using MacOS with MacPorts

Execute on the command line:

sudo port install memcached
sudo port install libmemcached

You’ll also need to install PHP extension, which depends on your PHP version so modify the next command to suit your version:

sudo port install php74-memcached

You can check the available ports here.

1.2 If using MacOS with Homebrew

TODO

2 Start

2.1 Start automatically

2.1.1 If using MacOS with MacPorts

Execute on the command line:

sudo port load memcached

This will start the server and set it up to start automatically after a reboot.

To stop the server and prevent it from running after a reboot, execute:

sudo port unload memcached

2.1.2 If using MacOS with Homebrew

TODO

2.2 Start manually when needed

2.2.1 If using MacOS with MacPorts

To start memcached manually, simply execute:

memcached

It will run in the foreground, and you can stop it when needed with Control-C.

2.2.2 If using MacOS with Homebrew

TODO

3 Test

To test if the memcached server is running, execute:

ps aux | grep memcached

You should see its process there, altogether with the port on which it listens to (default 11211).

Then you can telnet to it with:

telnet localhost 11211