Virtual Private Server User Guide

The Apache Web Server

logs   The directory contains the log files for the virtual host. There are two log 

files for a virtual host: access_log and error_log. The access_log keeps track of 

what pages your visitors are requesting, where they are finding out about your site 

and other information such as the size of the files transferred. The error_log keeps 

track of potential problems on your site, such as requested files that cannot be 

found, or files that your visitors tried to view but could not because they did not 

have permission to do so.

cgi bin   Each virtual host has a cgi bin directory which is generally used to store 

interactive programs and scripts used as part of the Web site. 

/www/icons   In this directory are small graphics files that Apache uses for 

various things. For example, when Apache creates a listing of the contents of a 

directory, icons are shown next to file names to indicate the type of files that they 

are.

/www/libexec   This directory contains the dynamic modules that Apache loads in 

when started. These modules add features to Apache that are not present in its 

core functionality. 

/www/include   This directory contains source code header files for Apache, 

which are used when building or creating your own Apache modules.

/www/man   The man pages for Apache and its related commands are stored in 

this directory. /www/sharedapps   This directory is intended to be used to install 

applications that you want to make available to all of your virtual hosts. The idea 

for doing so is to conserve disk space by installing common applications one time 

instead of multiple times. In doing so however, you lose the ability to customize 

each application to the specific Web site. At the time your server is created, a Web 

based mail reader application is installed into this directory and is available to use 

by pointing your Web browser to http://www.your_domain/postoffice/

/www/cgi bin   This is actually a symbolic link to the cgi bin directory of your 

primary Web site. It is present merely for convenience. For example, if your 

primary Web site were iacme.comi, you could get to the /usr/local/www/vhosts/

acme.com/cgi bin directory by simply typing: cd /www/cgi bin

/www/htdocs   This is actually a symbolic link to the htdocs directory of your 

primary Web site. It is present merely for convenience. For example, if your 

primary Web site were iacme.comi, you could get to the /usr/local/www/vhosts/

acme.com/htdocs directory by simply typing: cd /www/htdocs

Where Your Web Site Lives

When you ordered your VPS server, you selected a domain name for it. As a 

result, a home directory for your initial Web site was created in the /www/vhosts 

directory. If the domain name for your VPS server were iexample.comi for 

example, you would have a /www/vhosts/example.com/htdocs directory, and this 

is where you should place the Web pages and other content for this Web site. As 

described above, /www/htdocs is a shortcut to this directory that you can use for 

convenience.

Technical Training Department

August 2004

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