migrating domain to dreamhost, how to test?

I have given my friend a shell account so he may host his domain on my account. I have created his home directory and 'add a domain' for the name of his domain in his own directory. I have copied most of his site over to dreamhost but the install was pretty complex, trac / svn etc... So is there a way to test out the install before we change the DNS nameserver to point to dreamhost?Since i can't just access it via IP because there is multiple domains, whats the best way to do this? Thanks folks

For testing via shell, use hostname: server.dreamhost.com

For testing via http, use the Host file trick.




How To Install PHP.INI / ionCube on DreamHost

ok i think i will try the host file trick.
Does this he can just change his nameserver A record to poing to the dreamhost IP, or does he still have to puts dreamhost's nameservers IP in his domains registars database? Im not paying for static ip...

He doesn't have to change anything at his registrar until the testing is complete. The Hosts file trick just tells your computer to *not* use an online DNS to find out where the domain really lives.




How To Install PHP.INI / ionCube on DreamHost

yes i understand that but when we do make the switch im just wondering what the best way to do it is

Once he's happy that the DreamHost version of his site functions correctly, he can change the NameServers to point to DreamHost over at his registrar and remove his edits in his Hosts file after propogation has taken effect.




How To Install PHP.INI / ionCube on DreamHost

Ok
thanks sXi
Thanks what i was planning to do

Now I am trying the hosts trick

And i am getting this error on my web browser....
You don't have permission to access / on this server.

the web dir in my home folder has the permissions drw-rwxr--

what am i missing here?

Hard to say without seeing the structure involved but my first thought would be that .htaccess is denying access to /

Upload an index.html and browse to the domain.




How To Install PHP.INI / ionCube on DreamHost