How to Serve a Custom Folder on Apache in Ubuntu (change /var/www/html)

Last update: 05-18-2024

This guide will walk you through serving a website from a folder in your home directory using Apache on Ubuntu 24.04.

We assume Apache is already installed on your system. If not, you can install it with the following command:

sudo apt install apache2

Step 1: Create Your Website Folder

First, create the folder where your website's files will be stored. For this example, we'll create a folder named example-site:

mkdir ~/example-site

Step 2: Add Your Website Files

Place all the files for your website in the example-site folder.

Step 3: Allow Execute Permission

To allow Apache the execute permission to your home directory, add the www-data user to your user group:

sudo adduser www-data username

Replace username with your actual user.

Step 4: Configure Apache

Next, you'll need to configure Apache to use your new folder. Change to the sites-available directory:

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available

Create a new configuration file for your site:

sudo nano example-site.conf

In the configuration file, add the following:

<VirtualHost *:80>
<Directory /home/username/example-site/>
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Require all granted
</Directory>
DocumentRoot /home/username/example-site 
</VirtualHost>

Replace username with your actual username.

Step 5: Enable Your Site

Disable the default site configuration with:

sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf

Enable your new site configuration with:

sudo a2ensite example-site.conf

Step 6: Reload Apache

Finally, reload Apache to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl reload apache2

Conclusion

Your Apache server should now be serving your website from the example-site folder. You can verify this by navigating to your server's IP address in a web browser.