Apache setup for multiple sites with common files

I have approx 50 sites that all use the exact same files other than CSS and IMAGES, i currently duplicate the files each t开发者_如何学Pythonime i create a new site and upload different css and images.

What I want do so set up each vhost to have the same DocumentRoot then add AliasMatch for the css and images folders e.g:

#Common Files VHOST
<VirtualHost xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80>
    ServerName commonfiles.com
    ServerAlias www.commonfiles.com
    DocumentRoot /home/commonfiles/public_html
</VirtualHost>

#Sample vhost for 1 of the 50 sites.
<VirtualHost xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80>
    ServerName mytest.com
    ServerAlias www.mytest.com
    DocumentRoot /home/commonfiles/public_html
    ......
    AliasMatch /css/(.*) /home/ftpuser/public_html/mycss/$1
</VirtualHost>

The alias works perfectly for the bespoke files but the common files cant be accessed because of permission errors:

[Mon Nov 16 09:31:01 2009] [crit] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] (13)Permission denied: /home/commonfiles/public_html/.htaccess pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess file, ensure it is readable

This is the current server setup which I think may be part of the problem (Previous Server Admin Set this up):

• Apache(Apache/2.2.14 (Unix)
• PHP 5.2.11
• CentOS 4.8 i686 standard
• PHP 5 Handler is dso
• Apache suEXEC is on

Any suggestions?

It appears that by default the the public_html folder has permissions of 750, I changed to 755 and updated the open_basedir restrictions and all started to work great.

I just have to make sure that I can still have a .htaccess per site.

It doesn't sound like the AliasMatch is the problem, the error message is pointing to your htaccess file. Have you checked that for permissions? Wbich user does it belong to?

Another solution would be to create symbolic links on each domain pointing to the folder where the common files reside.