How do I change the root directory of an Apache server?
apache, lamp, linux
Solution
You need to change the `DocumentRoot` setting in your `httpd.conf` file. Chances are it will be under something like `/etc/apache2/conf/httpd.conf`.
Use your favourite editor (I recommend Vim) and look for the `DocumentRoot` and change it to `/users/spencer/projects`. Also look a little further down for a setting that looks like this:
<Directory "/var/www">
You will also want to change what is in the quotes to your new directory. This gives Apache access to read from that directory when a user makes a request that call on it.
Now restart your Apache service (`httpd -k restart`) and you should be good to go.
Apache 2 site configuration files are now typically kept in `/etc/apache2/sites-available/` (Debian, Ubuntu, etc.).
Problem
How can I change the document root of the Apache server? I basically want `localhost` to come from `/users/spencer/projects` directory instead of `/var/www`. I ended up figuring it out. Some suggested I change the `httpd.conf` file, but I ended up finding a file in `/etc/apache2/sites-available/default` and changed the root directory from `/var/www` to `/home/myusername/projects_folder` and that worked.