XAMPP — The cool localhost web server that has everything you need to test webservices – is a bit tricky to setup. Guidance from this page https://github.com/snoopysecurity/dvws gets you started. Here are the things to remember:

You have to clone the DVWS repo into the htdocs folder that XAMPP sets up during the install. When you have a successful install and you have gone to localhost:8080 and you see the pretty apache friends landing page, you are reading the index.php page that is in the htdocs folder.

Cloning the DVWS project into that folder is the tricky part. Where is the htdocs folder? How are we going to clone into it if we cant find it on the CLi? ( Always use the CLi. Its the rule… ) If you hit the explore button, it will open up the folder in the finder and then you can mav-Up from there which will get you to the virtual mount next to your HDD, but dragging the htdocs folder onto the terminal window reveals the complete path that you can use — filesystem access is granted through a hidden folder in your home directory — .bitnami

Seeing the /opt/lampp path was the lightbulb. There is no opt directory on the mac file system. This is a mounted drive that will be accessed through a virtual mount in your home directory. If you are not familiar with bitnami installations, this has a chance of holding you up.