# Creating virtual hosts with Mongrel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [February 19, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/creating-virtual-hosts-with-mongrel/160797 "2009-02-19T20:03:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![groovetrain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@groovetrain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/groovetrain)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/creating-virtual-hosts-with-mongrel/160797/1 "2009-02-19T20:03:06Z")
Does anyone know how to use Mongrel to create virtual hosts? My production site will have all kinds of domains pointing to it, and I also need to figure out how to do subdomains. Rails should react to the host name, doing a lookup based on the name and pull different records from the database based on this. For example, I’d like [www.mysite.com](http://www.mysite.com) to point back to 127.0.0.1:3000, and the same for [username.productionsite.com](http://username.productionsite.com). I’m using OS X Leopard Any references or council will be appreciated, thanks in advance! groove ---
**Author:** ![groovetrain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@groovetrain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/groovetrain)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/creating-virtual-hosts-with-mongrel/160797/2 "2009-02-19T20:11:21Z")
You might consider switching to Passenger for stuff like this. This is how our team is tackling this without much effort. Takes just a few minutes to setup/switch. Here is a writeup on it (for OS X). [http://www.robbyonrails.com/articles/2009/02/11/switch-to-passenger-mod\_rails-in-development-on-osx-in-less-than-7-minutes-or-your-money-back](http://www.robbyonrails.com/articles/2009/02/11/switch-to-passenger-mod_rails-in-development-on-osx-in-less-than-7-minutes-or-your-money-back) Cheers, Robby On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 11:02 AM, groovetrain [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I’m using OS X Leopard > > Any references or council will be appreciated, thanks in advance! > > groove > > > – Robby R. Chief Evangelist, Partner PLANET ARGON, LLC design // development // hosting w/Ruby on Rails > **[Planet Argon](https://www.planetargon.com/)** > > Planet Argon is a Ruby on Rails development agency specializing in maintenance and support for existing Rails apps. Based in Portland, OR, Planet Argon has been a member of the Rails community since 2004. [http://robbyonrails.com/](http://robbyonrails.com/) [http://twitter.com/planetargon](http://twitter.com/planetargon) aim: planetargon +1 503 445 2457 +1 877 55 ARGON [toll free] +1 815 642 4068 [fax] ---
**Author:** ![groovetrain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@groovetrain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/groovetrain)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/creating-virtual-hosts-with-mongrel/160797/3 "2009-02-19T20:16:04Z")
On 19 Feb 2009, at 19:02, groovetrain wrote: > Does anyone know how to use Mongrel to create virtual hosts? My > production site will have all kinds of domains pointing to it, and I > also need to figure out how to do subdomains. Rails should react to > the host name, doing a lookup based on the name and pull different > records from the database based on this. Typically people use nginx, apache etc… to handle the nuts and bolts side of virtual hosts. There’s railscasts on using subdomains ([#123 Subdomains - RailsCasts](http://railscasts.com/episodes/123-subdomains) ) Fred ---
**Author:** ![groovetrain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@groovetrain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/groovetrain)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/creating-virtual-hosts-with-mongrel/160797/4 "2009-02-20T01:58:56Z")
Mongrel will respond to everything with the same app. The app, however has access to A request.env variable which has hostname in it. Inspect it to find out more. Blog: [http://random8.zenunit.com/](http://random8.zenunit.com/) Learn rails: [http://sensei.zenunit.com/](http://sensei.zenunit.com/) ---
**Author:** ![groovetrain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@groovetrain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/groovetrain)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/creating-virtual-hosts-with-mongrel/160797/5 "2009-02-19T21:00:49Z")
Both of these are very helpful, thank you both so much. Does passenger allow for full domain names? Kindof like pseudo-hosts, like having a full [www.alskdfjhdsaf.com](http://www.alskdfjhdsaf.com) pointed back to localhost: 3000? Is there some way of doing this by hacking the /etc/hosts file? Groove On Feb 19, 2:15 pm, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![groovetrain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@groovetrain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/groovetrain)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 7:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/creating-virtual-hosts-with-mongrel/160797/6 "2009-02-21T19:07:36Z")
Groove, Did you read my article? We do the following for subdomains as well. - [http://www.robbyonrails.com/articles/2009/01/11/subdomain-accounts-with-ruby-on-rails-explained](http://www.robbyonrails.com/articles/2009/01/11/subdomain-accounts-with-ruby-on-rails-explained) Cheers, Robby On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 11:59 AM, groovetrain [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > records from the database based on this. > > > and the same for [username.productionsite.com](http://username.productionsite.com). > > > > > I’m using OS X Leopard > > > > > Any references or council will be appreciated, thanks in advance! > > > > > groove – Robby R. Chief Evangelist, Partner PLANET ARGON, LLC design // development // hosting w/Ruby on Rails > **[Planet Argon](https://www.planetargon.com/)** > > Planet Argon is a Ruby on Rails development agency specializing in maintenance and support for existing Rails apps. Based in Portland, OR, Planet Argon has been a member of the Rails community since 2004. [http://robbyonrails.com/](http://robbyonrails.com/) [http://twitter.com/planetargon](http://twitter.com/planetargon) aim: planetargon +1 503 445 2457 +1 877 55 ARGON [toll free] +1 815 642 4068 [fax]