How do I set up a local domain name in Apache and Ubuntu, eg website.sam?

Question

I would like to map my directories/subdomains in the following way:

/home/sam/sites/* to http://*.sam

I don't want to have to add a line to my hosts file every time I spool up a new site.

I'm a beginner when it comes to configuring and installing apache, what's the best way to achieve this?

Answer 1

It turns out there are quite a few steps involved in getting this working. Here is how I solved it:

1. Edit /etc/resolve.conf to set your domain name resolution to your local machine by commenting out any existing lines and adding nameserver 127.0.0.1. After this line add another line containing a secondary dns server for resolving other sites, eg nameserver 8.8.8.8. Some program also overwrites this file every time you boot, so you can use chmod 0444 /etc/resolv.conf to prevent this from happening (there might be a better way to achieve this).
2. Install dnsmasq, and at the end of /etc/dnsmasq.conf add a line address=/your-custom-local-domain/127.0.0.1
3. Create a new apache site config by placing a file called localdomain into /etc/apache2/sites-available with the text at the bottom of this answer.
4. Run the following command sudo a2ensite config localdomain.
5. Reboot apache, and create a new folder in ~/ called Sites.

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName 127.0.0.1
    ServerAlias *.your-custom-local-domain
    VirtualDocumentRoot /home/%2/Sites/%1/
    #ErrorLog /home/%2/logs/error.%1.log
</VirtualHost>

Now any new folder you create in the sites directory should be mapped to foldername.your-custom-local-domain.