Introduction
By default on Ubuntu the Apache2 web server stores its files in "/var/www/html" folder. Sometimes it’s helpful to move it to another location, such as a separate mounted file system.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to move the default directory to a new location. We are using Ubuntu 22.04 for this tutorial; however, you should be able to follow this guide using any of our offered Ubuntu or Debian distributions.
Copying Files
We are using "rsync" for copying files to a new location:
rsync -av /var/www/html /new/location
Where the "-a" flag preserves the permissions and other directory properties, and the "-v" flag provides comprehensive output.
Note: If you are using "Tab" completion, be sure to delete the trailing slash "/" on the directory.
Updating The Configuration File
Now we need to update the "000-default.conf" file:
Now we will find the line that begins with "DocumentRoot" and update it with the new location. It should look something like this:
# The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname, and port that
# the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
# redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
# specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
# match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
# value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
# However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.
#ServerName www.example.com
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /new/directory
# Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
# error, crit, alert, emerg.
# It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
# modules, e.g.
#LogLevel info ssl:warn
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
# For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
# enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
# include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example, the
# following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
# after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
#Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
# vim: syntax=apache ts=4 sw=4 sts=4 sr note
Restarting Apache
Once you’ve finished the configuration changes, you can make sure the syntax is correct with "configtest":
sudo apachectl configtest
If everything is right, you should get the output:
As long as you did not receive a syntax error, restart the web server. Otherwise, track down and fix the problems it reported. Use the following command to restart Apache:
sudo systemctl reload apache2
Conclusion
That's it! You changed Apache's default folder, and from now on, all your affected sites will be loaded from the new location.