How to Rails share virtual host at localhost by Pow + xip.io

You can easily change the virtual host to [project-name].dev just by adding a symbolic link. If you use xip, you can also easily share it with people in the same network.

Install Pow

Official site: Pow: Zero-configuration Rack server for Mac OS X $ curl get.pow.cx | sh.

Install Anvil

Official site: Anvil for Mac - Run your sites locally

What is xip.io?

It is a domain that resolves names to the IP address itself if you put the IP address in a subdomain, created by a DNS server that can use PowerDNS as a backend for various things.

For example, you can access your localhost with a URL like the following (which resolves to 127.0.0.1) Easy Virtual Hosting with xip.io - ngyuki’s Diary

Check local IP address with ifconfig

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$ ifconfig

<skip>

en0: 
 inet [ip-adress]

With the combination of pow + xip.io, I was able to share my local pow configuration [repository name.dev] to other people with [repository name]. [local IP address].xip.io. xip.io is useful.

$ curl curl -XPOST -v -H 'Content-Type: application/json' http://[project-name]. [local-ip-address].xip.io/api/v1/auth/sign_in -d '{"email": "test@example.com", "password": "testtest" }