Programming Tutorials

  Deploying a Laravel application to a shared hosting environment like DreamHost often presents a specific, recurring hurdle: the "Public Directory" mismatch. After uploading files, developers frequently encounter a directory listing, a 403 Forbidden error, or the requirement to append   /public   to the URL to view the application. This configuration error is not merely a cosmetic annoyance; it is a critical security vulnerability. Misconfigured document roots expose sensitive environment variables and configuration files to the public internet. This guide details the architectural reasons behind this issue, the correct method to resolve it using the DreamHost control panel (without messy  .htaccess  hacks), and the essential commands to finalize a production-grade deployment. The Architecture of the Problem To understand the solution, one must understand how modern PHP frameworks interact with web servers (Apache or Nginx) versus how shared hosting is traditio...