Automatic Apache Alias definitions

Question

I have a folder full of sites: /var/www

I have a domain: example.com

I want to write a rule in my httpd.conf that will setup an alias for each site in /var/www.

For example: /var/www/hello/public can be accessed via example.com/hello.

At the moment I am just writing my alias definitions manually, for each site: Alias /hello "/var/www/hello/public/"

Answer 1

Easiest solution would be to use mod_vhost_alias instead. It does not do exactly what you described, but it's very close.

1. Enable vhost_alias_module using whatever technique your distribution prefers (a2enmod vhost_alias on Debian-based distros).

2. Add these directives to httpd.conf:

   UseCanonicalName Off
   VirtualDocumentRoot /var/www/%1/public
   

3. Create a wildcard DNS entry for example.com so any subdomain of example.com is directed to your server.

Now accessing "hello.example.com" will load the site located in /var/www/hello/public.

Alternatively, as mentioned by Gabor, you can use mod_rewrite. The solution I'm going to outline assumes that you have no other content under example.com.

1. Enable mod_rewrite using whatever mechanism your distro prefers (a2enmod rewrite on Debian-based distros).

2. Add these directives to the VirtualHost for example.com:

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteRule ^([^/]+)(.*) /var/www/$1/public/$2
   

This will rewrite a request for "example.com/hello/steve" to /var/www/hello/public/steve.

Answer 2

Create a vhost for your domain and webroot. Write a rewrite rule instead of aliasing.