Host: Robert Moonen Date: 29th May, 2009
Make sure that the module you need is available.
So first of all we need to check the directory of available modules to see if we have a copy of module vhosts_alias
ls /etc/apache2/mods-available/
actions.conf actions.load alias.conf alias.load asis.load auth_basic.load auth_digest.load authn_alias.load authn_anon.load authn_dbd.load authn_dbm.load authn_default.load authn_file.load authnz_ldap.load authz_dbm.load authz_default.load authz_groupfile.load authz_host.load authz_owner.load authz_user.load autoindex.conf autoindex.load cache.load cern_meta.load cgi.load cgid.conf cgid.load charset_lite.load dav.load dav_fs.conf dav_fs.load dav_lock.load dbd.load deflate.conf deflate.load dir.conf dir.load disk_cache.conf disk_cache.load dump_io.load env.load expires.load ext_filter.load file_cache.load filter.load headers.load ident.load imagemap.load include.load info.conf info.load ldap.load log_forensic.load mem_cache.conf mem_cache.load mime.conf mime.load mime_magic.conf mime_magic.load negotiation.conf negotiation.load perl.load php5.conf php5.load proxy.conf proxy.load proxy_ajp.load proxy_balancer.load proxy_connect.load proxy_ftp.load proxy_http.load python.load rewrite.load setenvif.conf setenvif.load speling.load ssl.conf ssl.load status.conf status.load substitute.load suexec.load unique_id.load userdir.conf userdir.load usertrack.load version.load vhost_alias.load # this is mod_vhost_alias
Next we need to tell apache2 to load the vhosts_alias module
ls /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/
alias.conf alias.load auth_basic.load authn_file.load authz_default.load authz_groupfile.load authz_host.load authz_user.load autoindex.conf autoindex.load cgi.load deflate.conf deflate.load dir.conf dir.load env.load mime.conf mime.load negotiation.conf negotiation.load perl.load php5.conf php5.load python.load setenvif.conf setenvif.load status.conf status.load vhost_alias.load # make sure it's enabled
Now we need to setup the enabled sites file to include all the virtual hosts we will be adding.
cat /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default
<VirtualHost *:80> # set the port number here
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride AuthConfig
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
UseCanonicalName Off #
VirtualDocumentRoot /var/www/%0/ # this is the asked for URL
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
<Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
AllowOverride None
Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.
LogLevel warn
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
<Directory "/usr/share/doc/">
Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Including VirtualDocumentRoot /var/www/%0/ in the enabled sites file tells apache2 that is is to do directory expansion adding the asked for URL to the normal DocumentRoot directory.
ls -la /var/www total 24 drwxrwxr-x 5 root robert 4096 May 29 20:33 . drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 4096 Jan 3 13:29 .. lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 Jan 19 19:03 172.16.0.104 -> lampp/djelectro/postcode/ # local Virtual host lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Jan 19 19:02 ares -> ares.going-places.org/ # local Virtual host lrwxrwxrwx 1 robert robert 8 May 26 14:09 ares-ext -> external # local Virtual host drwxr-xr-x 25 robert robert 4096 May 31 14:45 ares.going-places.org # local Virtual host drwxr-xr-x 5 robert robert 4096 May 31 14:47 external # directory for external access lrwxrwxrwx 1 robert robert 18 Jan 24 23:29 going-places.dyndns.org -> /var/www/external/ # dyndns Virtual host lrwxrwxrwx 1 robert robert 34 Jan 24 23:29 going-places.webhop.net -> /var/www/lampp/djelectro/postcode/ # dyndns Virtual host -rw-r--r-- 1 robert robert 45 Dec 10 00:17 index.html drwxr-xr-x 7 robert robert 4096 Jan 8 18:39 lampp lrwxrwxrwx 1 robert robert 17 May 25 21:02 mywebspace.dyndns.org -> /var/www/external # dyndns Virtual host lrwxrwxrwx 1 robert robert 17 May 26 13:54 pastebin.dyndns.org -> /var/www/external # dyndns Virtual host lrwxrwxrwx 1 robert robert 18 Feb 3 12:51 www.going-places.dyndns.org -> /var/www/external/ # dyndns Virtual host lrwxrwxrwx 1 robert robert 34 Feb 3 12:48 www.going-places.webhop.net -> /var/www/lampp/djelectro/postcode/ # dyndns Virtual host lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Jan 19 19:04 www.intra.net -> lampp/djelectro/ # local Virtual host lrwxrwxrwx 1 robert robert 17 May 25 21:02 www.mywebspace.dyndns.org -> /var/www/external # dyndns Virtual host lrwxrwxrwx 1 robert robert 17 May 26 13:54 www.pastebin.dyndns.org -> /var/www/external # dyndns Virtual host
As you can see, now all you have to do is put links to your directories in URL format and it all “just works”. ;)