To quickly set up virtual hosts in Apache mod_macro has prooven to be a little gem. As the name suggests it allows you to use macros in the Apache configuration files. With mod_macro enabled you can add a new vhost by simply adding a single line to the vhost config file.

Here a brief overview on how to get it working.

Install and enable the module (Ubuntu/Debian):

root@michael:~$ apt-get install libapache2-mod-macro
root@michael:~$ a2enmod libapache2-mod-macro

Set up the macro in the development config file (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/development):

<Macro VHOST $host $path>
    <VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
        ServerAlias $host

        DocumentRoot $path

        <Directory $path>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
        </Directory>

        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/$host.error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/$host.access.log combined

        LogLevel warn

        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/$host.rewrite.log
        RewriteLogLevel 3

    </VirtualHost>

    <VirtualHost *:443>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
        ServerAlias $host

        DocumentRoot $path

        <Directory $path>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride All
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
        </Directory>

        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/$host.ssl.error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/$host.ssl.access.log combined

        LogLevel warn

        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/$host.ssl.rewrite.log
        RewriteLogLevel 3

        SSLEngine on
        SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/server.crt
        SSLCertificateKeyFile  /etc/apache2/ssl/server.pem
    </VirtualHost>
</Macro>

Use VHOST foo.local /src/foo
Use VHOST bar.local /src/bar

The Use VHOST foo.local /src/foo line adds a new vhost to the config with the server alias foo.local and the document root set to /src/foo.

Add an entry for each vhost to your hosts file (Windows: %windir%\System32\drivers\etc, Linux: /etc/hosts).

192.168.0.1 foo.local
192.168.0.1 bar.local

After restarting Apache you should be able to access http://foo.local and http://bar.local from your browser.