Is it possible to alias a URL in apache without using hosts?

Question

Hi all I am very new to this. I have a local intranet running an apache server. To access the web application, I am using the URL localhost:2130/app/. I would like to change it to something like www.app.com. Is this even possible?

well, if I edit my local hosts file to say "localhost:2130/app/ app", i can go to the page by just typing "app" in the URL address but this only works on my local machine. If I want to access it on other computers, I have to update the hosts file on those computer too. I don't want to update the file on every computer. And is wondering if you can do this on the server.

We need a little clarification. What do you mean by "using hosts"? Do you own app.com? Are you trying to make it accessible to the world? What kind of application? — Chris S, May 12 '10 at 18:58
Yeah... your edit didn't clarify anything. "hosts" typically means `/etc/hosts`, but it's not capable of doing what you claim. — Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams, May 12 '10 at 19:06
This question may have a better answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12089724/463994 — MountainX, Dec 02 '19 at 05:37

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered May 12 '10 at 19:16

The hosts file will allow you to point a name to an IP, but it won't go any further than that.

Do you run an internal DNS server for your network? Do you have a local domain for your local network? If you run a local domain for your local network you can add entries in there to point the IP for the name to that host, which would mean you don't need to apply it to all your local servers.

As for the Apache side, you may want to look at virtual hosts. An example might be something like this:

<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:2130>
    DocumentRoot    /path/to/yourapp
    ServerName      yourapphostname
</VirtualHost>

There are plenty of examples in the Apache documentation on how to set that up.

Thank you. I tried to implement this but didn't think about the missing ingredient, the DNS server. — onesith, May 12 '10 at 19:58

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 02 '19 at 05:38

This question may have a better answer here:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/12089724/463994

This can be achieved by using Alias or AliasMatch directive. More details can be found here:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_alias.html

Alias /first_url/ /var/www/first_url_resources

Is it possible to alias a URL in apache without using hosts?

2 Answers2