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Creating subdomain(s) in any web development environment is essential. For example, I have 2 projects going on at the same time and developement is concurrent. And subdomains were not created. So we have this scenario:

  • http://localhost/alphaproject/
  • http://localhost/betaproject/
  • http://localhost/phpmyadmin/

As you can see, I am assuming a Apache/PHP/MySql developemnt stack. 3 localhost urls that will be frequently accessed. Imagine what will happen when you want to access beta project? You “control+t” a new browser tab, and type in “localhost” only to have the url bar showing its history of the above 3 urls. Then you press the down arrow key to access the required url.

Waste of keystroke I will say. Now we create subdomains and we have:

  • http://alphaproject.localhost/
  • http://betaproject.localhost/
  • http://phpmyadmin.localhost/

So now when we want to access beta project? Type in “beta” and simply selected the required “remembered” url. Save some keystrokes and it will save up a a sizable amount of effort over time.

So how to create subdomain in Ubuntu?

Simple, I will cover the basic steps here. (Windows users, sorry, not here my friends).

Edit /etc/host and add the following line

127.0.0.1 alphaproject.localhost

Create a new configuration file in /etc/apache2/sites-available/alphaproject using

gksudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/alphaproject

In this configuration file, have the following:

<VirtualHost *>
    DocumentRoot /home/username/alphaproject/
    ServerName alphaproject.localhost
    <Directory /home/username/alphaproject/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews +Includes
        AllowOverride None
        Order allow,deny
        allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Save the file, and run the following:

sudo a2ensite alphaproject

Finally restart the Apache Server. Which I assume you should be using Apache2.

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

And by going to http://alphaproject.localhost/ you should be able to access you newly created subdomain.

On a ending note, phpmyadmin does come installed as a package but default to http://localhost/pma which I do strongly encourage users to change it to http://pma.localhost/

Think of the key strokes you be saving. And yes, do name your subdomain smartly, try picking each subdomain to have a different starting character.