Apache Cookbook, 2nd Edition

4.6. Mass Virtual Hosting with mod_vhost_alias

Problem

You want to host many virtual hosts, all of which have exactly the same configuration.

Solution

Use VirtualDocumentRoot and VirtualScriptAlias provided by mod_vhost_alias:

VirtualDocumentRoot /www/vhosts/%-1/%-2.1/%-2/htdocs
VirtualScriptAlias  /www/vhosts/%-1/%-2.1/%-2/cgi-bin

Discussion

This recipe uses directives from mod_vhost_alias, which you may not have installed when you built Apache, as it is not one of the modules that is enabled by default.

These directives map requests to a directory built up from pieces of the hostname that was requested. Each of the variables represents one part of the hostname, so that each hostname is mapped to a different directory.

In this particular example, requests for content from www.example.com are served from the directory /www/vhosts/com/e/example/htdocs, or from /www/vhosts/com/e/example/cgi-bin (for CGI requests). The full range of available variables is shown in Table 4-1.

Table 4-1. mod_vhost_alias variables

Variable	Meaning
%%	Insert a %
%p	Insert the port number of the virtual host
%M.N	Insert (part of) the name

M and N may have positive or negative integer values, the meanings of which are shown in Table 4-2.

Table 4-2. Meanings of variable values

Value	Meaning
0	The whole name
1	The first part of the name
-1	The last part of the name
2	The second part of the name
-2	The next-to-last part of the name
2+	The second, and all following, parts
-2+	The next-to-last, and all preceding, parts

When the value is placed in ...