How to change DocumentRoot for Apache website

DocumentRoot defines the folder for which the content of your website is located in the server. You can set the value in the main configuration for the default website or in a VirtualHost to set the folder specific to the website or virtual servers that you're hosting.

You can change the DocumentRoot location for your default website in the main configuration file or within the VirtualHost configuration.

1. Edit Apache configuration using your preferred text editor.

   $ sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf
   [sudo] password for user:

   Related: Location for Apache DocumentRoot configuration

2. Set the DocumentRoot value in main or VirtualHost configuration to the folder that you prefer.

   <VirtualHost *:80>
           ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
           DocumentRoot /home/user/website
           ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
           CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
   </VirtualHost>

3. Make sure Apache has the correct permission to the folder.

   $ sudo chown --recursive www-data:www-data /home/user/website/

   Related: Default user and group for Apache daemon

4. Make sure Directory option is setup properly for the folder.

   <VirtualHost *:80>
           ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
           DocumentRoot /home/user/website
           ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
           CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
           
           <Directory /home/user/website/>
                   #Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
                   #AllowOverride None
                   Require all granted
           </Directory>
   </VirtualHost>

5. Change SELinux context if required.

   $ sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t "/home/user/website(/.*)?"

   This applies to distributions that implements SELinux such as CentOS, RHEL and Fedora Use httpd_sys_content_t instead for readonly access for Apache on the folder.

6. Restart Apache for the changes to take effect.

   $ sudo systemctl restart apache2 #Ubuntu, Debian, openSUSE and SLES
   $ sudo systemctl restart httpd # CentOS and Red Hat

   Related: How to manage Apache service

7. Access the website to test if the changes was successful.

   $ curl 127.0.0.1
   Hi, I'm located in /home/user/website