Recommended workflows for Apache virtual hosts?

Question

I do a lot of local web development work on my Ubuntu machine, and I'm constantly setting up virtual hosts in Apache. I don't need to do hard core server management, but I am getting tired of the repetitive process of manually adding config directives to files in /etc/apache2/sites-available/ and then updating the /etc/hosts file.

Is there a more efficient or more automated way to do all this that I'm missing? Maybe something like rapache but that's actually working?

Answer 1

When I had to do shuch things I proceed creating a VirtualHost whit a wildcard name:

1. Choose a fancy domain name like 'example.com' for localhost
2. Place it in /etc/hosts file as 127.0.0.1 *.example.com
3. Install and activate mod_rewrite

4. create a wildcard VirtualHost in apache sites directory:

   <VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80>
     DocumentRoot /default/path
     ServerName example.com
     ServerAlias *.example.com
     RewriteEngine On
     UseCanonicalName Off
   
     RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(.*).example.com
     RewriteCond /srv/%1/ -d
     RewriteRule ^(.+)   %{SERVER_NAME}$1 [C]
     RewriteRule ^([^.]+)\.example\.com/(.*) /srv/$1/$2 [L]
   </VirtualHost>
   

5. Now you can place any folder under /srv/ and it will be the root for <foldername>.example.com

This is borrowed from memory, it could need some more minor adjustments and it may conflict with any other rewrite rules each webapp would have. But it fits me for my webapp testing needs.

Answer 2

would webmin work ? It's not just for apache but rather a web interface to system administration. It does have a form filling interface to apache virtual host.

Answer 3

why not make a website that makes/updates the files for you? if you are working with php and this is local only use the exec() function to run terminal commands to write/create/update data that you want based on textbox entries. I wish i knew how to make applications on ubuntu that are gui based. would make life really easy.