Dynamic Virtual Hosting Questions

Question

I have read the documentation on how to create a dynamic virtual host system on Apache's website, but I am quite confused about some things:

1) Do I have to dynamically configure window's host file to update each time a virtual host is added, if so, how?

2) Say a domain gets a name change, do I have to just rename the directory and edit the host file aswell?

3) For a vitualhost to direct it's name to a subdomain all I need to do is

VirtualDocumentRoot /www/hosts/%0/docs 

where 0% = sub.domain.com, right? Without the hassle of learning how to configure a DNS.

4) Also, how would I stop others from accessing other people's directories?

Answer 1

It'd make answering this easier if you told us what you're trying to accomplish. But you seem lost on a few things so I'll try. 1. If DNS is configured properly, no. You'd need wild card DNS entries *.something.com 2. no, but you'd need to update your apache config, add the server alias. 3. Not sure, I'd have to re-read the docs again. 4. simple, htaccess per directory. can tie this to AD as well.