A simple bash script for setting up a local directory and corresponding entry in /etc/hosts, suitable for use with Apache wildcard name-based virtual hosts. For example: 'newsite example.dev' creates a directory called /www/example.dev/ and also adds appropriate 127.0.0.1 / ::1 entries for example.dev to /etc/hosts (the latter step requires sudo).

newsite.sh

#!/bin/bash
DIRECTORY="/www/$1"
DIR_CREATED=false
HOSTS_EDITED=false

if [ -d "$DIRECTORY" ]; then
        echo "* Directory $DIRECTORY already exists, skipping this step."
else
  mkdir $DIRECTORY
  DIR_CREATED=true
  echo "* Directory added: $DIRECTORY"
fi

if grep -Fq "$1" /etc/hosts; then
  echo "* Site already exists in /etc/hosts, skipping this step."
else
  echo -e "\n127.0.0.1\t$1\n::1\t\t$1" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts > /dev/null
  HOSTS_EDITED=true
  echo "* Site added to /etc/hosts"
fi

if $DIR_CREATED || $HOSTS_EDITED; then
  echo -e "\nSite added: http://$1/"
fi