Trick Ubuntu into resolving a domain name locally

Question

I have an Ubuntu box that I use for all sorts of things. One thing I really want to do is redirect a sub domain to a local script.

For example thisbit.example.com should actually show the content from localhost/~USER/FAKE.thisbit.example.com/ which is a folder that Apache is running for me which contains a very simple PHP script which implements an offline version of a server script that I am testing against.

But example.com should continue to behave normally as should notthisbit.example.com etc.

Ideally I need to be able to switch from testing to live with minimal fuss when the time comes.

Have you tried adding a specific entry for "thisbit.example.com" that redirects to localhost and to the specific port Apache is running on? — , Aug 30 '12 at 13:14

score 13 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 30 '12 at 13:14

13

Add your domain name and IP address to /etc/hosts file. For example

127.0.0.1 thisbit.example.com

Edit:

Add configure apache to proxy to your fake path

ProxyPass / http://localhost/~USER/FAKE.thisbit.example.com/

ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost/~USER/FAKE.thisbit.example.com/

answered Aug 30 '12 at 13:14

Manula Waidyanatha

8,555

I'm going to give this a go. Cheers. (Will mark as accepted when all pans out). – Aug 30 '12 at 13:28
ProxyPass I take it some sort of mod I need to add to apache? – Aug 30 '12 at 15:59
Aded ProxyPass and that seems to be working but I'm getting Forbidden from my own Apache server. – Aug 30 '12 at 16:10

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 30 '12 at 16:46

user637152 put me on the right track with editing /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 thisbit.example.com

Which had things resolving to the wrong folder. But the modproxy was not working for me at all.

In the end it dawned on me that I had a virtual host incoming. So I set Apache up to deal with that. Now I own the domain for this PC.

<VirtualHost thisbit.example.com:80>
    ServerName thisbit.example.com
    DocumentRoot //home/USER/public_html/FAKE.thisbit.example.com/
    <Directory />
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
    </Directory>
    <Directory /home/USER/public_html/FAKE.thisbit.example.com/>
        Options -Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Trick Ubuntu into resolving a domain name locally

2 Answers2