[SOLVED] 2 domain names pointing to same index.html file

Dafydd · 06-22-2014, 12:59 PM

I would like to have 2 different domain names point to the same 'index.html'.
Question #1. Is that possible and is it permitted?

Then I would like the 'index.html' file to determain which domain name called it and branch appropreably.

I've been reading over on Stackoverflow

I'm confused about some terminalogy.
Question #2. Should I use either of these?

Code:

NAME [{$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']}]";
"HTTP_HOST [{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}]\n"

Or something like this?

Quote:

..... set the domain name as an environment variable in the apache2 virtual host:

# Virtual host
setEnv DOMAIN_NAME example.com
And read it in PHP:

// PHP
echo getenv(DOMAIN_NAME);

frieza · 06-22-2014, 01:17 PM

first of all, domains do not point at 'index.html', they point at an IP address, it is then up to the configuration of the web server ie:(apache, IIS, lighthttp) to determine how to handle the domain request by serving the contents of a 'document root' folder specified in the server configuration.

a virtual host block in the apache conf would look something like this

Code:

<VirtualHost x.x.x.x:80>
DocumentRoot /home/user/content/www
ServerName x.gotdns.com
<Directory "/home/user/content/www">
allow from all
allowoverride all
Options +Indexes
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

where

Code:

/home/user/content/www

is a folder that acts as the root of your web-site's tree structure.

As for whether or not it's permissible to have multiple domains share the same document root, this is not only possible but such commonplace as there are ways of doing this with 'alias' directives, and there php scripts (such as Drupal) that are even coded to be able to take advantage of it to make one code base behave like a theoretically infinite number of discrete sites based on domain/subdomain.

example (extract from above)

Code:

ServerName x.gotdns.com
ServerAlias y.gotdns.com

the 'index.html' is merely a convention of the default html document for a server to present when serving the contents of a folder on the server, if one is not present, the directory contents are listed instead (unless rules prevent that)

as for $_SERVER, that is PHP code, which is a server side programming language, which would be necessary to add such logic to a program. and would be placed in an 'index.php' rather than an 'index.html', the php file extension tells the server to process the file as a server-side script rather than simply handing the contents of the document wholesale to the browser.

hope this helps

Dafydd · 06-22-2014, 05:32 PM

This helped mucho.
I now know that I know less than I thought I knew.

Let me absorb some of this and try to write some code. Be back= in a couple 3 days.
Thanks
Dave

frieza · 06-23-2014, 03:03 PM

no problem ^^
setting up a web server isn't really as hard as it first seems, not that it's exactly easy, but when it comes down to it it just takes a good amount of patience and planning to know what you intdend to do with your machine. How you configure your server can then be determined based on how you intend to use the server.

Note, most default apache servers on Linux machines (at least the ones packaged in the distribution's repositories) come configured a default server with a 'document root' of /var/www, /var/www/html or some other variant of such, you COULD use that as is, but that would require ROOT access to modify the files on the server, which is why I usually create virtual hosts with their 'document root' in a user's home directory, as this allows easier ftp/sftp access to the server without having to do any complicated permissions work etc... and is more secure overall to not be running web scripts etc with root access.

jefro · 06-25-2014, 05:40 PM

Is stackoverflow talking about host headers? A way to have multiple FQDN's pointing to a single IP address?

Dafydd · 06-26-2014, 12:06 AM

Jefro....
A lot of my problems in searching out the code education I need is the lack of my knowledge of acronyms used in the computer coding world.

So?

I've seen lots of text about host headers. What are they? And what are 'FQDN's'?

frieza · 06-26-2014, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dafydd

Jefro....
A lot of my problems in searching out the code education I need is the lack of my knowledge of acronyms used in the computer coding world.

So?

I've seen lots of text about host headers. What are they? And what are 'FQDN's'?

FQDN stands for 'Fully Qualified Domain Name'
which contains it's exact location in the DNS hierarchy
eg: example.com myhost.example.com or www.google.com etc...

jefro · 06-26-2014, 03:20 PM

Sorry, I re-read your question and I was confused.

You can have a million domain names point to a web server that offers a page. That page being any name you wish.

A FQDN is only a way to translate a text name to an IP address for the web. www.linuxquestions.org is being sent over the internet as an IP address (and possibly a port number.) Try 75.126.162.205 in your browser address line. It should result in LQ.

The server doesn't care what name was used to request the page unless host headers were used. That is where I was backwards. You simply want two URL's to point to your single web server. It should work fine with no intervention on your part. As long as your FQDN's or local host names all resolve to an IP and when you use that IP instead of a name the web page you created works then all is OK.