Related

How do i resolve Server Error 500 Question Question
FTP Not Working Question Question

Question

sites-available and sites-enabled?

Posted December 13, 2016 140.2k views
ApacheUbuntu 16.04

Hi

What’s the difference between sites-available and sites-enabled?

I’m having some difficulty getting either .htaccess or mod_rewrite to work. I’m not sure which bit is failing at the moment.

I been reading two guides

‘How To Use the .htaccess File’ tells me to open /etc/apache2/**sites-available**/default which is empty (?), according to the guide it shouldn’t be.

And 'How To Set Up mod_rewrite for Apache on Ubuntu 14.04’ tells me to open /etc/apache2/**sites-enabled**/000-default.conf

Am I supposed to be editing both these files?

Bit confused :)

Add a comment
smeehan
By:
smeehan

Related

How do i resolve Server Error 500 Question Question
FTP Not Working Question Question
Add a comment
2 comments
  • ryanpq December 13, 2016
    Reply Report

    I can understand the confusion. If Apache is configured properly they are the same file (not a copy). The idea here is that all your sites are defined by files in the sites-available folder and then you can use the command a2ensite mysite (where the file is called mysite.conf) and the system creates a symlink on the filesystem in the sites-enabled folder. Apache when starting actually reads the configuration from any .conf files (or symlinks to .conf files) in the sites-enabled folder.

    To get .htaccess files to work properly you need to have an AllowOverride All set somewhere in your configuration inside a <Directory> block that points to the location where you want this to take effect.

    As @JasonLabs mentioned it will look somewhat like this:

    <Directory /var/www/html/mysite>
        AllowOverride All
</Directory>
  • yashjain27 June 12, 2018
    Reply Report

    What about

    <Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    </Directory>

    do we change AllowOverride in the Directory folder to ‘All’ also?

These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.

×
3 answers
JasonLABS December 13, 2016

I had a rough time with this earlier, and I can’t find the source of this information right now. I will keep looking, but…

To enable .htaccess to your web directory on Ubuntu 16.04, the file you need to edit is located at: 

/etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Towards the middle/lower end of the file you will see:

<Directory /var/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
</Directory>

If you have AllowOverride None, change it to AllowOverride All

This turns on .htaccess for your web directory.

From here you should be able to follow the instructions for Enabling mod_rewrite from here: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-mod_rewrite-for-apache-on-ubuntu-14-04

Which should be as follows: 

sudo a2enmod rewrite

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Mine was already enabled I believe.

How To Set Up mod_rewrite for Apache on Ubuntu 14.04
by Alvin Wan
In this tutorial, we will activate and learn how to manage URL rewrites using Apache2's `mod_rewrite` module. This tool allows us to rewrite URLs in a cleaner fashion, translating human-readable paths into code-friendly query strings. This guide is split into two halves: the first sets up a sample web application and the second explains commonly-used rewrite rules.
Reply Report
smeehan December 13, 2016

Ok, I’m not 100% sure how it works, but I’ve been able to get Step 4 — Setting Up Files from the guide working.

I’ll have to come back to this when I setup another Droplet, so I know exactly what I’m doing :)

This test rewrite works

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteRule ^about-test$ about-test.html [NC]
</IfModule>

If I visit example.com/about-test it shows the content of about-test.html and the url doesn’t have the .html extension.

So at least I know mod_rewrite and my .htaccess file is working…

That said, a set of rewrite rules I use on other hosting setups (that work fine) aren’t working…

How To Set Up mod_rewrite for Apache on Ubuntu 14.04
by Alvin Wan
In this tutorial, we will activate and learn how to manage URL rewrites using Apache2's `mod_rewrite` module. This tool allows us to rewrite URLs in a cleaner fashion, translating human-readable paths into code-friendly query strings. This guide is split into two halves: the first sets up a sample web application and the second explains commonly-used rewrite rules.
Reply Report
smeehan December 13, 2016

Thanks for the replies!

This is the contents of my /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

I can’t see the lines @JasonLabs mentions?

Should I just add them?

# This is the main Apache server configuration file.  It contains the
# configuration directives that give the server its instructions.
# See http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/ for detailed information about
# the directives and /usr/share/doc/apache2/README.Debian about Debian specific
# hints.
#
#
# Summary of how the Apache 2 configuration works in Debian:
# The Apache 2 web server configuration in Debian is quite different to
# upstream's suggested way to configure the web server. This is because Debian's
# default Apache2 installation attempts to make adding and removing modules,
# virtual hosts, and extra configuration directives as flexible as possible, in
# order to make automating the changes and administering the server as easy as
# possible.

# It is split into several files forming the configuration hierarchy outlined
# below, all located in the /etc/apache2/ directory:
#
#       /etc/apache2/
#       |-- apache2.conf
#       |       `--  ports.conf
#       |-- mods-enabled
#       |       |-- *.load
#       |       `-- *.conf
#       |-- conf-enabled
#       |       `-- *.conf
#       `-- sites-enabled
#               `-- *.conf
#
#
# * apache2.conf is the main configuration file (this file). It puts the pieces
#   together by including all remaining configuration files when starting up the
#   web server.
#
# * ports.conf is always included from the main configuration file. It is
#   supposed to determine listening ports for incoming connections which can be
#   customized anytime.
#
# * Configuration files in the mods-enabled/, conf-enabled/ and sites-enabled/
#   directories contain particular configuration snippets which manage modules,
#   global configuration fragments, or virtual host configurations,
#   respectively.
#
#   They are activated by symlinking available configuration files from their
#   respective *-available/ counterparts. These should be managed by using our
#   helpers a2enmod/a2dismod, a2ensite/a2dissite and a2enconf/a2disconf. See
#   their respective man pages for detailed information.
#
# * The binary is called apache2. Due to the use of environment variables, in
#   the default configuration, apache2 needs to be started/stopped with
#   /etc/init.d/apache2 or apache2ctl. Calling /usr/bin/apache2 directly will not
#   work with the default configuration.


# Global configuration
#

#
# ServerRoot: The top of the directory tree under which the server's
# configuration, error, and log files are kept.
#
# NOTE!  If you intend to place this on an NFS (or otherwise network)
Reply Report
Submit an Answer

Related

Looking for something else?

Ask a new question Search for more help