apache 2.2 - vhost_alias_module domain.com doesn't go to www.domain.com

I'm using the configuration below to use vhost_alias_module to more easily manage my hosted setup. I want sites to be structured like the following /sites/domain.com/w/w/w/ which with the configuration below works fine. However, if I attempt to access domain.com instead of www.domain.com this falls apart. How do I fix this?

Update: I want request for domain.com to automatically be directed to www.domain.com. It would be fine if this required a 403 redirect (I think that would be preferred from a SEO perspective) .

LoadModule vhost_alias_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_vhost_alias.so


        ServerAdmin admin@gmail.com

        DocumentRoot /sites/
        
                Options FollowSymLinks
                AllowOverride None
        
        ;
                Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews ExecCGI
                AllowOverride All

                Order allow,deny
                allow from all
        
    UseCanonicalName Off
    VirtualDocumentRoot /sites/%2+/%1.1/%1.2/%1.3+

Answer

Well, the requirement to imply www comes close to pushing you out of being able to use mod_vhost_alias, and into mod_rewrite territory.. but there's a couple options that I can think of:

1. Just redirect to www.

   
   
   

   RewriteEngine on
   # Match anything with a two-part name
   # (will not work for 3-part base domains that would need to redirect to www, be careful)
   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^([^\.]+\.[^\.]+)$
   # Redirect
   RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301]
   
   




2. Let those requests work without a redirect, and use symlink trickery to stick them to the www location.

   
   
   

   With your VirtualDocumentRoot, requests to domain.com go to /sites/com/d/o/m - let's change that:

   
   
   

   VirtualDocumentRoot /sites/%-2+/%-3.1/%-3.2/%-3.3+
   

   
   
   

   This will make a request for domain.com go to /sites/domain.com/_/_/_ - make this location a symlink to /sites/domain.com/w/w/w.