What do we need?

The two most common tools for this are the Apache and nginx servers.

Notes:

You’ll need to edit a few system configuration files. If you’re uncomfortable with vim, replace vim with nano, or gedit in the following commands. For example, sudo vim will become sudo -H gedit or sudo nano.

Once you’re done setting it up, have a look at How to avoid using sudo when working in /var/www? A more detailed guide is available from the Ubuntu LTS Server Guide.

First, install Apache:

{% highlight bash %} tasdik@Acer:~$ sudo apt-get install apache2 {% endhighlight %}

The Apache configuration files are located in /etc/apache2. You’ll typically be interested in:

  • /etc/apache2/sites-available - contains the Virtual Host definitions. Definitions are enabled and disabled using the a2ensite and a2dissitecommands. The enabled site definitions are linked to /etc/apache2/sites-enabled.

  • /etc/apache2/conf-available - contains custom configuration files. They are enabled and disabled using the a2enconf and a2disconf commands. The enabled site configuration files are linked to /etc/apache2/conf-enabled.

  • /var/www/html - the default directory that Apache serves.

  • For most instructions, I’ll assume we are in /etc/apache2.

VirtualHost setup

Let us create a new site. There’s a default configuration available in sites-enabled/default.conf. We will make a copy of this, and work on it:

This is where should be

{% highlight bash %} tasdik@Acer:/etc/apache2$ ls apache2.conf conf-available conf-enabled envvars magic mods-available mods-enabled ports.conf sites-available sites-enabled tasdik@Acer:/etc/apache2$ {% endhighlight %}

{% highlight bash %} tasdik@Acer:$ sudo cp sites-available/000-default.conf sites-available/my-name.conf tasdik@Acer:$ sudo nano sites-available/my-name.conf {% endhighlight %}

It should look something like this

{% highlight bash linenos %} <VirtualHost *:80> # The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName # specifies what hostname must appear in the request’s Host: header to # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless. # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly. ServerName myname.com

ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/my-name

# Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
# error, crit, alert, emerg.
# It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
# modules, e.g.
#LogLevel info ssl:warn

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

# For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
# enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
# include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
# following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
# after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
#Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf

vim: syntax=apache ts=4 sw=4 sts=4 sr noet

{% endhighlight %}

Save the file, and enable it:

{% highlight bash %} tasdik@Acer:~$ sudo a2ensite my-name {% endhighlight %}

Now, we need to set up the directory for the site:

{% highlight bash %} tasdik@Acer:~$ sudo mkdir /var/www/my-name {% endhighlight %}

We’ll set permissions for convenience:

{% highlight bash %} tasdik@Acer:$ sudo chown $USER:www-data /var/www/my-name tasdik@Acer:$ sudo chmod g+s /var/www/my-name {% endhighlight %}

Add a few HTML files here.

Since the virtual host is to run locally, we need to map myname.com to a local address. To do this, we need to edit /etc/hosts:

{% highlight bash %} tasdik@Acer:~$ sudo nano /etc/hosts {% endhighlight %}

It should look something like this

{% highlight bash linenos %} 127.0.0.1 localhost 127.0.1.1 Acer 127.0.0.2 myname.com myname

The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts

::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback fe00::0 ip6-localnet ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix ff02::1 ip6-allnodes ff02::2 ip6-allrouters {% endhighlight %}

Save, and then restart Apache:

{% highlight bash %} tasdik@Acer:~$ sudo service apache2 restart {% endhighlight %}

Now, you can browse to http://myname.com or http://myname, and the contents of /var/www/my-name will be displayed.