Apache Settings For Unique subdomain and Domain Directories - apache

Question

I'm fairly capable with most of the web server configuration but I have run into a problem.
I have a VPS install with one sub domain. Currently the link sub1.domain.com points to the root of the public_html/www folder.
I am now looking at creating new sub domains as well as using domain.com to point to a wordpress installation.
From my understanding, I must edit the apache httpd.conf file, but I am unsure exactly how to do this. I would expect that I would have to have domain.com point to a subdirectory as well as sub2.domain.com point to a different sub directory. Something like the following.
sub1.domain.com >> rootPathForApache/
domain.com >> rootPathForApache/domain.com/
sub2domain.com >> rootPathForApache/sub2/
Could somebody please point me in the right direction.
Kind Regards,

Answer 1

You have a couple options:
Option 1: Apache's <VirtualHost> directive could solve this (multiple). This is only available in the server config context.
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot "rootPathForApache/"
ServerName sub1.domain.com
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot "rootPathForApache/domain.com/"
ServerName domain.com
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot "rootPathForApache/sub2/"
ServerName sub2domain.com
</VirtualHost>
Option 2: Use a .htaccess file in rootPathForApache with the mod_rewrite module loaded, and introduce ServerAlias directive into either your existing <VirtualHost> directive.
.htaccess contents (or if you want within the VirtualHost directive itself):
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^sub1.domain.com
RewriteRule ^(.*) $1 [L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain.com
RewriteRule ^(.*) domain.com/$1 [L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^sub2domain.com
RewriteRule ^(.*) sub2/$1 [L]
...and the ServerAlias:
ServerName domain.com
ServerAlias sub1.domain.com sub2domain.com
The latter solution (option 2) just seems ridiculous, especially since ServerAlias is only available within a VirtualHost directive and mod_rewritehtaccess files add unnecessary overhead. That and it doesn't seem natural. I guess it illustrates the flexibility of Apache's configuration and modules.