Apache on Debian Squeeze Notes

18 December 2011

Apache Directory:

# ls /etc/apache2
apache2.conf  envvars	  magic		  mods-enabled	sites-available
conf.d	      httpd.conf  mods-available  ports.conf	sites-enabled

Content is placed in sites-available and is made live by creating a link to it in sites-enabled.

Restart Apache:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Name-based virtual hosting allows multiple hosts to share the same IP address.

Enabling name-based virtual hosts

Name-based virtual hosting is enabled for each IP address and port in /etc/apache2/ports.conf

NameVirtualHost *:80
Listen 80

You could also create a file in /etc/apache2/conf.d as Apache reads all files in here on startup.

Configuring virtual hosts

For example /etc/apache2/sites-available/alasdairsmith.com

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName alasdairsmith.com
    ServerAlias www.alasdairsmith.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/alasdairsmith.com/public_html/
</VirtualHost>

Enabling and disabling sites

Sites are enabled by creating a symbolic link in sites-enabled/ to the file in sites-available/. The Debian Apache package provides two utilities a2ensite and a2dissite to do this for you.

Reload or restart Apache

Reload /etc/init.d/apache2 reload or restart /etc/init.d/apache2 restart Apache for the changes to take effect