Mark Kirby – Mobile Developer

Setting up virtual hosts on OS X Leopard

A couple of months ago I explained how to set up PHP 5 on OS X Leopard – it was very easy! We also configured PHP so that the default folder was your Users/home folder, instead of Library/Webserver.

If you have lots of sites to test, you might want to be able to type a url into the browser, and see the site directly. To do that you need to modify your Mac’s hosts file, and set up a Virtual Server.

1 – Preparation

Decide upon the URL you want to use, I’m going for mark-kirby.dev in this example.

Decide where you want the files to go that will appear for this url, and place them there on your computer. I’m using /Users/username/Sites/mark-kirby for this example.

2 – Edit the hosts file

Open the file

[code lang="apache"]/private/etc/hosts[/code]

Since this file is hidden, you will need to need to check the option “open hidden files” if your text editor has one, or use the terminal to open the file directly.

[code lang="apache"]mate /private/etc/hosts[/code]

Alternatively, you could:

  1. Open finder
  2. click on go
  3. select “Go to folder”
  4. enter in /private/etc/

You will see the following:

[code lang="apache"]##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1    localhost
255.255.255.255    broadcasthost
::1             localhost[/code]

Underneath this, enter your local IP address (127.0.0.1) and the name of the site you want to set up, e.g.

[code lang="apache"]127.0.0.1 mark-kirby.dev[/code]

Save the file – you will have to authenticate – and now when ever you type http://mark-kirby.dev into a browser it will give you your local folders – EVEN if mark-kirby.dev is an actual website on the internet. Browsers always check the hosts file first.

2 – Add the virtual host in apache

If you type mark-kirby.dev into your browser now, you will still see your default folders, you need do some more work.

Open the file

[code lang="apache"]/private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf[/code]

using the methods described above.

You will see this first -

[code lang="apache"]#
# Use name-based virtual hosting.
#
NameVirtualHost *:80[/code]

Don’t touch it!

Then you will see this -

[code lang="apache"]

ServerAdmin webmaster@dummy-host.example.com
DocumentRoot "/www/docs/dummy-host.example.com"
ServerName dummy-host.example.com
ServerAlias www.dummy-host.example.com
ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/dummy-host.example.com-error_log"
CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/dummy-host.example.com-access_log" common
[/code]

First I’ll quickly explain what each line means:

  • ServerAdmin – the email address of the server admapachestrator e.g. mark-kirby@mark-kirby.dev, this will show up on error pages
  • DocumentRoot – the location of the files to show e.g. /User/username/Sites/mark-kirby
  • ServerName – the domain name you want to use e.g mark-kirby.dev
  • ServerAlias – an alternative name which will point to the same place e.g. www.mark-kirby.dev
  • ErrorLog – the location of a log file to output errors to, e.g. “/User/username/Sites/logs/mark-kirby-error-log”
  • CustomLog – the location of a file where all other logs should be written, followed by a format – just stick with common – e.g. “/User/username/Sites/logs/mark-kirby-access-log common”

So really, you only need DocumentRoot and ServerName if this is a test server only you will access.

Firstly comment out the examples – very important, don’t miss this step!

Then add a default entry so localhost will still take you to the root of your Sites folder:

[code lang="apache"]
DocumentRoot "/Users/username/Sites"
ServerName localhost
[/code]

Finally, add your entry, e.g.

[code lang="apache"]
DocumentRoot "/Users/username/Sites/mark-kirby"
ServerName mark-kirby.dev
[/code]

Save this, you’ll need to authenticate.

3 – Activate virtual hosts in apache

If you haven’t done so, by default the file you just edited, won’t be enabled in Apache.

To change this open up another hidden file – /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Find the line

[code lang="apache"]# Virtual hosts
#Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf[/code]

And uncomment the include so it looks like this:

[code lang="apache"]# Virtual hosts
Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf[/code]

Save the file – you may need to authenticate.

4 – Restart Apache

This still won’t work, until you restart apache.

To restart apache:

  1. Go to system preferences
  2. Select “sharing”
  3. Uncheck the box “Web Sharing” – apache will stop
  4. Check it again – apache will start

Test your site – you should be in luck!

5 – Permission problems

If you have any problems with permissions on your new site, you could try Jeremy Keiths solution – he adds a directive to his httpd-vhosts.conf file which allows everything, it looks like this:

[code lang="apache"]

Options Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

[/code]

Tags:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 6:51 pm and is filed under tutorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

36 Responses to “Setting up virtual hosts on OS X Leopard”

  1. On April 20th, 2008 at 4:20 pm, Ross Boardman said

    Great article. Thanks for your efforts. This is by far the beest explanation I found after a few hours of searching for a concise set of instructions.

    Should the line: “And comment out the include so it looks like this:”

    Be ‘Uncomment’ as opposed to ‘comment out’?

  2. On April 21st, 2008 at 9:33 am, kirby.mark said

    Ross – of course it should have, thanks, I’ve updated that now! Glad you found the tutorial useful.

  3. On May 11th, 2008 at 3:37 pm, Chris V said

    Thanks for the great tutorial. My question is related to setting up the virtual host directory to run Cgi scripts written in Python. Should the python scripts live inside DocumentRoot? I know they can, but I read somewhere it is a bad idea to have python in DocumentRoot for security reason. The whole reason I have the virutal hosts for each site is so I can do my development for each site in its own directory and use the browser address point to each one. Is there a recommended way to set up a test environmet for each site I am working on?

  4. On May 15th, 2008 at 7:45 pm, Quinn Taylor said

    I found that the syntax for CustomLog in the examples is incorrect.

    Rather than:
    CustomLog “/User/username/Sites/logs/mark-kirby-access-log common”
    it should be:
    CustomLog “/User/username/Sites/logs/mark-kirby-access-log” common

    This is evident if you run ‘apachectl -S’ to check the vhosts configuration.

  5. On May 23rd, 2008 at 10:41 am, kirby.mark said

    Thanks Quinn, stupid mistake, now corrected :-)

  6. On July 19th, 2008 at 7:10 pm, KinRou Blog » Setting up virtual hosts on Leopard said

    [...] http://mark-kirby.co.uk/2008/setting-up-virtual-hosts-on-os-x-leopard/ [...]

  7. On August 29th, 2008 at 3:53 pm, Martin said

    Thanks! This information really helps me to solve my virtual hosts problems.

  8. On October 9th, 2008 at 7:21 pm, Gabe said

    Thanks, helpful. Another minor error: in the ‘Permission problems’ section, you say that Jeremy Keith “adds a directive to his hosts file.” This didn’t work for me, so I checked JK’s own site: the directive should of course go in the httpd-vhosts.conf file.

  9. On October 27th, 2008 at 9:48 pm, Luke Dorny said

    Removing the smartquotes in the code sections would be extremely helpful. took me forever to notice that the smartquotes were pasted in, instead of regular code-quotes.

    Thanks for the article.

  10. On November 23rd, 2008 at 7:54 am, Adam Saint-Prix said

    Why it took me so long to find this site I’ve no idea, but I’m glad I did. In addition to the main post, there are some helpful tidbits from other commenters so thanks to everyone for contributing.

    I’ve been trying to get this to work off and on for months. I’d try for a couple of days and give up, come back, try again and give up for a week. Learned a lot in the process including two things I really needed and didn’t know:

    1. Edit /private/etc/hosts to get your virtual host to work.
    2. Type ‘apachectl -S’ in the terminal to troubleshoot problems with the httpd-vhosts.conf file syntax; it will spit out any syntax errors that you need to change. Go change them and watch your site come up. Joy.

    Hopefully my rant helps someone else.

    Adam

  11. On December 17th, 2008 at 9:47 am, nlex said

    Why 127.0.0.1 ?

    Why not 192.168.0.1 ?

  12. On December 19th, 2008 at 9:17 pm, kirby.mark said

    nlex – 127.0.0.1 will always be your localhost, regardless of your ip address or even if you are on a network or not

  13. On January 24th, 2009 at 7:09 pm, Andy said

    Hello! Thanks for the great tutorial. My virtual hosts seem to be working but there’s one bug. I’ve got a local development site called ‘nadesignlab’ that contains a directory called ‘icons’. This directory contains a file called ‘icon.gif’. When I browse to this file directly using the following URL, I get a ‘Not Found’ error:

    http://nadesignlab/icons/icon.gif

    When I try to access the file in the following manner, I have success:

    http://localhost/nadesignlab/icons/icon.gif

    I was wondering if you have any insight into what may be happening. Thanks!

  14. On January 25th, 2009 at 7:10 pm, Tom said

    Is there any way to make these new virtual hosts accessable on a network? Thanks!

  15. On January 31st, 2009 at 7:31 pm, Nigel Hay said

    192.168.0.1 is your modem/router address. Pretty common when using Netgear modems. They either use 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1
    If you were allowing friends to connect from outside then you would be using a 192.168.*.* (Your LAN Address)to direct them to that PC on the LAN if you wanted them to connect to your pc.
    As Mark said 127.0.0.1 is your localhost address

  16. On February 11th, 2009 at 4:58 am, Michael said

    Mark,

    Great tutorial!!! Got me up and running!! I have question about the ServerAlias.

    I tried doing this and when I enter the address in the browser I get a redirect as if it tried going through the internet.

    I have a folder called “testphp” in /Users/username/Sites/. My host file has this entry:
    127.0.0.1 testphp.dev.

    Then, my vhost file has:

    DocumentRoot “/Users/username/Sites/testphp”
    ServerName testphp.dev
    ServerAlias http://www.testphp.dev

    Any thoughts/suggestions?

  17. On February 25th, 2009 at 6:54 pm, kirby.mark said

    Michael – hi, sorry for the late reply. Firstly, you don’t need the server alias so get rid of that. hen go to testphp.dev (not http://www.testphp.dev, forget all about www for this) and check again. It should work fine.

  18. On March 5th, 2009 at 10:35 am, Ed said

    great tutorial – worked like a charm :) Thanks for taking the time to post it.

  19. On March 26th, 2009 at 8:20 am, Jamison Dance said

    Thanks for the great tips. I got this working perfectly with only one minor fix. I was getting a “403 Forbidden” error on everything I tried to access on my virtual hosts.
    I had to add this in:

    Allow from all

    inside of my tags. Now it works like a charm. Aparently the default settings on Apache are set up to deny all on anything besides the DocumentRoot defined in httpd.conf, but this took care of it fine.

  20. On April 15th, 2009 at 9:15 am, 13 steps » Turning your Mac into a webserver said

    [...] web sharing in you preferences. If you intend on hosting multiple sites, here’s a rundown on how to configure virtual hosts. PHP comes included with Leopard but is disabled by default. You could enable it, however, [...]

  21. On April 27th, 2009 at 2:46 pm, Nick said

    The permissions fix…

    Options Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews
    AllowOverride All
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all

    …needs the directory tag closing ie:

    Doesn’t it?

  22. On April 28th, 2009 at 10:33 am, Russell said

    After hours of tearing my hair out over this you’ve provided a simple and easy to follow tutorial. Many thanks!

  23. On May 13th, 2009 at 1:41 am, GMorWhatever said

    Much more straight forward than most I’ve seen. I just have one question and I know it will seem silly to most, but bear with me since I’m new to Macs. What do you mean when you say authenticate, because I tried running down an explaination of how to do that somewhere else and I’m not getting anything but again a reference to authenticate. When I tried this without it, I got a permission denied instead of a request for password or the like.

  24. On June 15th, 2009 at 8:13 am, fossli said

    hm. how can i access this form another machine via LAN??

  25. On June 15th, 2009 at 8:27 am, Dave said

    The easiest Virtual Host tutorial ever, worked first time.
    Happy days, thanks!!

  26. On June 16th, 2009 at 12:16 am, Bryan said

    Thank you so much for making this as easy as possible. I have searched for hours on how do this. But they were all long winded and did nothing but confuse you. Thanks for keeping it real.

  27. On June 24th, 2009 at 10:40 am, kirby.mark said

    Thanks for the nice comments, glad to be of help. Fossli – to access a site on your LAN you would need to change the hosts file on the machine you want to access from, point the url you want to use to the ip address of the machine you want to host the site on, and set the site up on that machine with the virtual host. So basically repeat step 2 for every machine on your network that will access the locally hosted site, and instead of 127.0.0.1 you use the IP address of the computer hosting the site (e.g. 192.168.0.10).

  28. On June 28th, 2009 at 1:13 pm, Sätt upp en lokal utvecklingsmiljö i Leopard - steg för steg | andreask.se said

    [...] Setting up virtual hosts on OS X Leopard [...]

  29. On August 6th, 2009 at 9:15 am, Cysgoddyn said

    Wow, that’s great. Mark’s 24th June post is a very useful tip if you need to debug IE on PCs. Thanks for taking time to explain this in plain english.

  30. On August 11th, 2009 at 8:39 am, fossli said

    Ok. thanks kirby.mark. I get a new ip every day…that’s why i asked. i can see the solution is to get one static ip-adress…
    thanks

  31. On September 28th, 2009 at 3:22 pm, zakkap said

    Apache require that you name the virtual host if theres more than one.

    Here is what needs to be placed on the first line of your vhosts.

    NameVirtualHost *

    Worked for me.

  32. On October 30th, 2009 at 12:32 am, Jason said

    Hey thanks for the tutorial, any reason why my request would be resolving to /Users/username/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/fbtmp/example.com

  33. On November 18th, 2009 at 5:47 pm, John Cruz said

    Great tutorial!!! Thank You. Got it Working.

  34. On December 5th, 2009 at 9:58 pm, Opally said

    Thanks very much for taking the time to write this. I couldn’t get my virtual hosts working with my MacPorts Apache2 installation until I read your tutorial and realized I had to edit the hosts file.

  35. On January 3rd, 2010 at 7:33 pm, David said

    Thanks so much for this great tutorial. It worked fabulously!!!

  36. On January 6th, 2010 at 7:23 pm, Paul said

    Wow, you just made my life easier! Before I’d read this, I’d been setting up a virtual host according to my IP address, which changes everytime I login to the router!

    Now I’m using 127.0.0.1, I’ll never have to worry about that again once I’ve setup a site, so thanks very much for your help!

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