8.4 Reading an Apache configuration

By Ravindra Bagale Last updated: 25 September 2026

Apache uses directives (one per line, no semicolon) and sections in angle brackets:

# /etc/httpd/conf.d/mysite.conf   (Ubuntu: /etc/apache2/sites-available/mysite.conf)
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName  example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    ServerAdmin webmaster@example.com

    DocumentRoot /var/www/mysite
    DirectoryIndex index.html index.php

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

    ErrorDocument 404 /404.html
    ErrorLog  /var/log/httpd/mysite_error.log
    CustomLog /var/log/httpd/mysite_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

(On Ubuntu use ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/mysite_error.log, which points to /var/log/apache2/.)

Directive	What it does
`<VirtualHost *:80>`	A site listening on port 80 of all IPs
`ServerName` / `ServerAlias`	Main host name / extra names for this site
`DocumentRoot`	Folder that URL paths map to
`DirectoryIndex`	File served for a folder request
`<Directory path>`	Rules for a folder on disk
`Options -Indexes`	Disable automatic folder listing
`AllowOverride All`	Allow `.htaccess` files (needed by WordPress permalinks)
`Require all granted`	Allow everyone to access this folder (Apache 2.4 syntax)
`ErrorLog` / `CustomLog`	Per-site log files
`Listen`	Ports Apache binds to (in `httpd.conf` or `ports.conf`)
`ServerTokens Prod` + `ServerSignature Off`	Hide version details

No inline comments in Apache

Require all granted # allow all is an error in Apache. Comments must be on their own line starting with #.

How Apache chooses the virtual host

For a given IP:port, Apache compares the Host header with every ServerName/ServerAlias. If none matches, the first virtual host loaded for that port answers, and files load in alphabetical order. That's why Ubuntu's default site is called 000-default.conf: it sorts first. sudo apachectl -S (Ubuntu: sudo apache2ctl -S) prints this list, showing which vhost is the default:

*:80   is a NameVirtualHost
       default server example.com (/etc/httpd/conf.d/mysite.conf:1)
       port 80 namevhost example.com (/etc/httpd/conf.d/mysite.conf:1)
               alias www.example.com