How to Configure Virtual Host for Laravel

1 Apache Virtual Host Configuration

Create a new virtual host configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/laravel.conf

Add the following configuration:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName laravel.local
    DocumentRoot /var/www/laravel/public
    
    <Directory /var/www/laravel/public>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
    
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/laravel_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/laravel_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enable the site and restart Apache:

sudo a2ensite laravel.conf
sudo systemctl restart apache2

2 Nginx Virtual Host Configuration

Create a new Nginx configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/laravel

Add the following configuration:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name laravel.local;
    root /var/www/laravel/public;
    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
    }

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
        deny all;
    }
}

Enable the site and restart Nginx:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/laravel /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

3 Configure Local Hosts File

Add the domain to your local hosts file:

sudo nano /etc/hosts

Add this line:

127.0.0.1 laravel.local

4 Set Proper Permissions

Set the correct permissions for your Laravel application:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/laravel
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/laravel
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/laravel/storage
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/laravel/bootstrap/cache