Automated installation of subdirectory-based multisite (single code-base)

Hello,

I have tried to set up the mentioned subdirectory-based Drupal multisite installation, e.g.

http://example.com - codebase, all Drupal files go to the Web root of the site, single copy for all the site (and the site-specific components go to the relevant sites/ subdirectory.

In sites/:

example.com.a/ directory with settings.php etc
example.com.b/ directory with settings.php etc
example.com.c/ directory with settings.php etc

to have the following separate sites with their own DB tables sets:

http://example.com/a
http://example.com/b
http://example.com/c
etc

The problem is, I can't set those up. No way doing that by straightforward unpacking the distribution, calling install.php to have these sites set up properly.

Also, if I create those sites DB content elsewhere and import it into the example.com's actual DB, I can't access them, either. The root installation will intercept the URLs and either display the corresponding existing document in root installation, or redirect me to '404' document.

I was recommended this workaround: to create symlinks first, i.e. in Web root

ln -s . a
ln -s . b
ln -s . c
etc

Then run installation like this

http://example.com/a/install.php
and so on.

But:

- this won't work in systems without symlinks
- this is not reflected in installation manual - not a hint how to actually create such kind of multisiting

Perhaps it would be a good idea either to implement this in regular way (if possible) or at least add to INSTALL.txt the necessary explanations/directions.

Until then, it seems that the only working approach is to copy codebase/modules/themes/etc to the respective subdirectories and correct RedirectBase in their .htaccess to allow such multisiting on any platform.

Thanks.