Why does http://localhost redirect to my default virtual host once I setup virtual hosts in Apache?

Question

This is probably an easy question, but I want to understand better how Apache works with virtual hosts. I am setting up virtual hosts because I work on multiple websites at once and I don't want to use subdirectories. I was pretty much using the default Apache httpd.conf file with the DocumentRoot pointing to something like "/www". I uncommented the virtual hosts include and added the following:

NameVirtualHost *:80

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName site1.dev
    DocumentRoot /www/site1
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName site2.dev
    DocumentRoot /www/site2
</VirtualHost>

Now when I go to http://localhost I get the default page for site1.

I'm sure there is a reason why this makes sense, but I don't quite understand it. I would've thought that only requests that were explicitly to http://site1.test would get routed through that directive and it wouldn't just become the default. Can someone explain why it becomes the default.

Answer 1

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/vhosts/name-based.html

(Should be true for 2.x also)

"If no matching virtual host is found, then the first listed virtual host that matches the IP address will be used.

As a consequence, the first listed virtual host is the default virtual host. The DocumentRoot from the main server will never be used when an IP address matches the NameVirtualHost directive. If you would like to have a special configuration for requests that do not match any particular virtual host, simply put that configuration in a container and list it first in the configuration file."

Answer 2

answer 1 is correct and i'd add with namevirtualhosts as the first entry essentially matches any not-named elsewhere virtualhost

it should ONLY be used to catch unintentional mal-formed and broken traffic

ie a machene with one ip called john.domain.com running www.domain.com and www.domain2.com as valid webservers on ip www.xxx.yyy.zzz might have an optimal config like thus

    <VirtualHost *:80>
     DocumentRoot /var/webserver/static-sites/unknown/
    # a directory readable by apache with only a robots.txt denying everything
     ServerName bogus
     ErrorDocument 404 "/errordocuments/unknown-name.html"
    #custom 404 describing how/what they might have done wrong try pointing a browser {with a hosts file at http://bogus/ on 193.120.238.109 to see mine#
     ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/unknown-error.log
     CustomLog /var/log/httpd/unknown-access.log combined
    </VirtualHost>

    <VirtualHost *:80>
     DocumentRoot /var/webserver/static-sites/unknown/
    # a possibly different directory readable by apache with only a robots.txt denying everything
     ServerName www.xxx.yyy.zzz
     ServerAlias john.domain.com
     ErrorDocument 404 "/errordocuments/ip-name.html"
     ErrorDocument 403 "/errordocuments/ip-name.html"
    #custom 404 telling them as a likely hacker/bot you wish to have nothing to do with them see mine at http://193.120.238.109/
     ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/ip-error.log
     CustomLog /var/log/httpd/ip-access.log combined
    </VirtualHost>

    <VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerName domain.com
     RedirectPermanent / http://www.domain.com/
     ErrorLog logs/www.domain.com-error.log
     CustomLog logs/www.domain.com-access.log combined
    </VirtualHost>

    <VirtualHost *:80>
     DocumentRoot /var/webserver/ftpusers/domain
     ServerName www.domain.com
     ServerPath /domain
     ErrorLog logs/www.domain.com-error.log
     CustomLog logs/www.domain.com-access.log combined
    </VirtualHost>

    <VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerName domain2.com
     RedirectPermanent / http://www.domain2.com/
     ErrorLog logs/www.domain2.com-error.log
     CustomLog logs/www.domain2.com-access.log combined
    </VirtualHost>

    <VirtualHost *:80>
     DocumentRoot /var/webserver/ftpusers/domain2
     ServerName www.domain2.com
     ServerPath /domain2
     ErrorLog logs/www.domain2.com-error.log
     CustomLog logs/www.domain2.com-access.log combined
    </VirtualHost>