: What is the purpose of with a local <VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot /var/www <Directory /> </Directory> </VirtualHost> Does the <Directory> tag refer

@Candy875

Apache applies configurations for directories to a request from smallest to largest. In essence the <Directory /> section specifies virtual host defaults; since every other possible directory will have that portion in its path.


If multiple (non-regular expression) sections match the
directory (or one of its parents) containing a document, then the
directives are applied in the order of shortest match first,
interspersed with the directives from the .htaccess files. For
example, with


<Directory />
AllowOverride None
</Directory>

<Directory "/home">
AllowOverride FileInfo
</Directory>



for access
to the document /home/web/dir/doc.html the steps are:


Apply directive AllowOverride None (disabling .htaccess files).
Apply directive AllowOverride FileInfo (for directory /home).
Apply any FileInfo directives in /home/.htaccess, /home/web/.htaccess and
/home/web/dir/.htaccess in that order.



BTW, in the above example <Directory /home/web> would've worked the exact same way. The reason that isn't usually used though is because doing so will make moving your site to a new directory a little more difficult. It's easier to just use <Directory /> since that will work no matter where the site root is.

There is a full explanation on the Apache site: httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/core.html#directory

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