[SOLVED] How do I redirect to a subdomain?

[Mr. Bungle]

I'm very new to Linux server administration, so please pardon the beginner question!

 

With regard to DNS records, virtual host config files and the like, specifically how would I redirect all requests made to example.com and www.example.com to subdomain.example.com? Basically, I want subdomain.example.com to be the URL that everyone sees; my domain name is a hack similar to del.icio.us, so I'd want the lazy people who just navigate to icio.us (or even www.icio.us) to be immediately redirected to del.icio.us (interestingly, I just realized that del.icio.us doesn't even do this).

 

My hosting company recommended that I set up two virtual hosts - one for example.com and www.example.com that redirects to the other one, subdomain.example.com. I asked a web developer friend for a second opinion, and he thinks that I can do this purely on the DNS level.

 

Please be as specific as you can, since I'm pretty new. Thanks in advance for any help!

[trq]

You couldn't do this on a DNS level. While you could (on a DNS level) have the domains example.com, www.example.com and subdomain.example.com all point at the same server, if a user types example.com into there browser it will stay example.com.

 

Forcing all requests to go to subdomain.example.com however is simple using apache's mod_rewrite module.

 

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^subdomain\.example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ http://subdomain.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

 

Simply place this rule within a .htaccess file within your document root to enable it.

[Mr. Bungle]

thorpe, thank you so much! This worked like a charm. I actually inserted your code into my apache2.conf file and then had to enable the mod_rewrite module by following the instructions at http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-7304.html.

 

Again, really appreciate it - problem solved!