How to redirect apache /var/www to the home directory and access all the directories and files in my home directory?

I have installed Apache(LAMP) web server on my ubuntu machine and I want to do the above mentioned thing.I have tried creating symbolic links in the /var/www directory but it only shows files but not directories inside the directory linked.I want to redirect /var/www to my home folder so that I can access all the files and directories contained therein.Please help me.

Solution 1:

I must warn you that what you wish to do is very risky and I don't suggest you to do it so.

But if you yet wish to do it AT YOUR OWN RISK:

You can change your default folder for www content by editing the information provided inside the /etc/apache2/sites-available/default file. By dropping sudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default and changing any occurrence of the /var/www and setting the folder that you wish to use.

The contents of the file will look like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

    DocumentRoot /home/geppettvs/www
    <Directory />
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
    </Directory>
    <Directory /home/geppettvs/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride None
        Order allow,deny
        allow from all
    </Directory>

    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
    <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
        AllowOverride None
        Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

    # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
    # alert, emerg.
    LogLevel warn

    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
    <Directory "/usr/share/doc/">
        Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Order deny,allow
        Deny from all
        Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

In this case I am using my /home/geppettvs/www folder in order to place the files that will be exposed to the public via http connections (port 80).

Give this a try. I hope this help you.

Please note that you may experience some issues when attempting to do certain things in some files or folders from the root directory if you don't give them the proper permissions but that's worth another question.

Good luck!