Re: Weird problem with httpd.conf save

Hi again,
        I've replied between points here for clarity.

I don't get it yet.

 I was going to
 re-order the httpd.conf file for him so that the default virtual host
 was the initial one he set up (rather than the last one added).


In the httpd.conf file you moved the last <VirtualHost> block to the top of
the <VirtualHost> list, so it would be the default site.

And saved the file, I assume, and restarted apache, I assume.

No, the problem occured before I got the chance to modify anything.

> So, in the terminal, I did a cp httpd.conf httpd.conf.save25april2003
Then you duplicated the file with a different name in the same dir. What's
the significance of duping the file?

We wanted a duplicate in case anything went wrong - didn't expect that just saving a file would cause this. I think something else was at work here.

> every virtual host called up was being served out of

the same directory.


You mean every host who's IP resolved to the apache <VH  IP> (e.g.,
DNS=www.X.com A 10.0.0.1 AND <VirtualHost 10.0.0.1>), requested with http,
resulted to the newly configured default site, the one you moved to the top
of the <VH> list?

As if all the other hosts that point at that machine's http server were not
finding their corresponding ServerName perimeter in the <VirtualHost> block?
Like:

<VirtualHost    10.0.0.1:80>
ServerName      other.X.com #####like it didn't find this?
DocumentRoot    /Library/WebServer/WebSites/other
NameVirtualHost 10.0.0.1
...
</VirtualHost>

Remember that I said above that I didn't get the chance to modify anything - what you've posted is EXACTLY what was happening - it was almost like all the virtuals were pointing at the same directory - however, they were each pointing at different directories.

> Now, I went in & did apachectl configtest

You should have tried this: # tail -f /var/log/httpd/error_log and tail -f
/var/log/httpd/access_log (or wherever the logs are) and then made some http
requests to the server while watching the output from the tail -f command.

 Now, the owner of the machine then tried switching a whole
 bunch of the httpd.conf files we had saves & one of them brought it
 back to normal.


You should have compared the httpd.conf file that revived it to the one you
broke. diff file1 file2 OR BBEdit.

We have compared them - with the exception of the order of the virtuals, there appears to be no difference at all.

> Has anyone else seen the same symptoms & if so, what was it &

how did you fix it.


I've done this many times. It was always some miss-configuration in the
httpd.conf file. The apachectl configtest doesn't always complain about
miss-configurations only bad syntax. You can put the wrong IP in the <VH>
and configtest won't complain but it won't work.

I'd look at:
<VirtualHost    ????:80>
ServerName      other.X.com ##check the DNS?
NameVirtualHost ????

but it could be a bunch of other things. I just fuss with till it works
watching the error_log.

We'll be closely watching this - I still don't understand what happened. --

Bye for now, Terry Allen ___________________________________________________________________ hEARd

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