The default Apache2 web server document root is /etc/www/html. This can be sometimes annoying because of permission issues. You can change the default apache web server document root folder to a new folder in your Home folder.
Change apache web server document root in ubuntu
Here my Apache version: 2.4.18 (Ubuntu 16.04)
To change the default Apache2 web server document root ie: /etc/www/html/ to any other folder in Home folder ie: /home/manikandan/www/
Here manikandan is my ubuntu username. (replace it with your username)
and www is a folder in the ubuntu Home directory. (create a www folder in your ubuntu home folder.)
Open the 000-default.conf file using below command in terminal.
sudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf
and then type your password.
Find below line in 000-default.conf file
DocumentRoot /etc/www/html
and replace it with below line
DocumentRoot /home/manikandan/www
Save it and close it. The type the below command in terminal.
sudo gedit /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
It will open the apache2.conf file. Find the below line in that file
<Directory /var/www/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Require all granted </Directory>
And replace it with the below line
<Directory /home/manikandan/www/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Require all granted </Directory>
Save and close this file. Restart Apache using below command
sudo service apache2 restart
Now open http://localhost/ in your browser it should work as expected. If you are having trouble please leave a comment.