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”. ;)