You
can, of course, mix the two techniques.
<VirtualHost> blocks that have been
NameVirtualHostedwill
respond to requests to named servers; others will respond to requests
to the appropriate IP numbers. This will also be important when we
look at Apache SSL (see Chapter 11):
User webuser Group webgroup NameVirtualHost 192.168.123.2 <VirtualHost www.butterthlies.com> ServerAdmin sales@butterthlies.com DocumentRoot /usr/www/APACHE3/APACHE3/site.virtual/htdocs/customers ErrorLog /usr/www/APACHE3/APACHE3/site.virtual/IP-based/logs/error_log TransferLog /usr/www/APACHE3/APACHE3/site.virtual/IP-based/logs/access_log </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost sales.butterthlies.com> ServerAdmin sales@butterthlies.com DocumentRoot /usr/www/APACHE3/APACHE3/site.virtual/htdocs/salesmen ServerName sales.butterthlies.com ErrorLog /usr/www/APACHE3/APACHE3/site.virtual/IP-based/logs/error_log TransferLog /usr/www/APACHE3/APACHE3/site.virtual/IP-based/logs/access_log </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost 192.168.123.3> ServerAdmin sales@butterthlies.com DocumentRoot /usr/www/APACHE3/APACHE3/site.virtual/htdocs/salesmen ServerName sales-IP.butterthlies.com ErrorLog /usr/www/APACHE3/APACHE3/site.virtual/IP-based/logs/error_log TransferLog /usr/www/APACHE3/APACHE3/site.virtual/IP-based/logs/access_log </VirtualHost>
The two named sites are dealt with by the
NameVirtualHost directive, whereas requests to
sales-IP.butterthlies.com, which we have set up
to be192.168.123.3, are dealt with by the third
<VirtualHost> block. It is important that
the IP-numbered VirtualHost block comes last in
the file so that a call to it falls through the named blocks.
This is a handy technique if you want to put a web site up for access — perhaps for testing — by outsiders, but you don’t want to make the named domain available. Visitors surf to the IP number and enter your private site. The ordinary visitor is very unlikely to do this: she will surf to the named URL. Of course, you would only use this technique for sites that were not secret or compromising and could withstand inspection by strangers.