Home directory websites using vhost

Needs / Issues

• Develop websites located inside home directory;
• No need for special (root/web server) privileges to develop sites;
• Websites are referenced with DNS, not aliases.

Audience

• Administrator / Power user;
• Developer user.

Initial Setting

• Apache 2.2 (or newer).

Steps

• In a shell session (as user):

  

  1. Create your "root" directory
     mkdir ~/public_html
     This is where the site will be hosted.
      
  2. Make sure the Apache user can access that root directory:
     namei -l ~/public_html
     All directories in the output list should be at least executable by the Apache user.

• In a shell session (as root):

  1. Enable VHosts in Apache's configuration:
     vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
     Uncomment the following line:
     NameVirtualHost *:80
      
  2. Create an Apache configuration file for your website:
     vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/YOUR_WEBSITE.conf
     Have it contain:
     <VirtualHost *:80>

       ServerName YOUR_WEBSITE.localhost

       DocumentRoot /home/YOUR_USERNAME/public_html
       <Directory "/home/YOUR_USERNAME/public_html">
         AllowOverride All
         Order Allow,Deny
         Allow from All
       </Directory>

       ErrorLog logs/YOUR_WEBSITE.localhost-error_log
       CustomLog logs/YOUR_WEBSITE.localhost-access_log common
     </VirtualHost>
     

  3. Restart the web server:
     service httpd restart
      
  4. Add a local DNS entry to your website:
     vi /etc/hosts
     Add the following line:
     127.0.0.1  YOUR_WEBSITE.localhost

• In your web browser:

  1. Browse to the URL you created:
     http://YOUR_WEBSITE.localhost/


  2. You should be served your new website.

Should these steps not work for you, please let me know.