Question

First of all, I’m on ubuntu 12.10 and running latest apache patch. I know how to access the default localhost directory of my server from other computers. When I type in 192.168.1.** in a different computer, I can access the /var/www/ directory.

But what if I want to appoint that to a different directory? Where and how do I modify it? hosts, conf.d etc? And how can I access it with a domain name instead of the IP? Thanks ahead.

Answer 1

Look in /etc/apache2/sites-available. You will most likely find a file named default and another named default-ssl. The DocumentRoot can be changed within this file. Remember to restart Apache…

sudo service apache2 restart

Or…

sudo apache2ctl graceful

Or…

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

It’s not unusual to have several virtual hosts listed in sites-available, and remember that these configs have to have symbolic links in sites-enabled in order to be seen by Apache.

A Virtual Host file looks something like this…

Listen 80
<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /www/example1
    ServerName www.example.com

    # Other directives here
</VirtualHost>

Further reading: Apache Documentation – Virtual Hosts