[SOLVED] httpd fails to start, no other errors

@EchoLynx:

What did I miss?

Verify no configuration errors with:

apachectl -S

Check the error log:

/var/log/httpd/error_log

–

Travis

Thanks for the fast reply!

Output from apachectl -S

[root@host logs]# apachectl -S
VirtualHost configuration:
1.2.3.4:80       is a NameVirtualHost
         default server example.com (/etc/httpd/conf.d/vhost.conf:3)
         port 80 namevhost example.com (/etc/httpd/conf.d/vhost.conf:3)
         port 80 namevhost example.net (/etc/httpd/conf.d/vhost.conf:12)
Syntax OK

/var/log/httpd/errorlog contained a bunch of errors complaining about being unable to access access.log, so I created that file for both sites and cleared errorlog. Unfortunately, there is still more to be fixed.

error_log after /etc/init.d/httpd start

Unable to open logs

What's next?

It's probably a permissions problem, make sure apache has write permissions to it's log files.

My linux ineptitude is showing.

I tried to get the permissions the way I thought they would need to be, but apparently I am doing something wrong.

/svr/www/example.com/logs

[root@host logs]# ls -lsh
total 4.0K
4.0K -rwxr-x--x 1 apache apache 1 May 30 08:54 access.log
   0 -rwxr-x--x 1 apache apache 0 May 30 08:54 error.log

/svr/www/example.net/logs

[root@host logs]# ls -lsh
total 4.0K
4.0K -rwxr-x--x 1 apache apache 1 May 30 08:47 access.log
   0 -rwxr-x--x 1 apache apache 0 May 30 08:47 error.log

[root@host logs]# cat /var/log/httpd/error_log
Unable to open logs

ermm well you don't need execute permission on group and others.

You're probably going to want to chmod 0644 the logs and make sure the group is writable by the apache user which is probably either apache/apache2/www-data

I don't use apache but these are my nginx permissions which I imagine will be the same

-rw-r–--- 1 www-data adm 19K 2011-05-30 22:40 access.log

Well, I selected apache because that seemed to be the only webserver-ish user in /etc/passwd (see last line)

[root@host mail]# cat /etc/passwd
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
bin:x:1:1:bin:/bin:/sbin/nologin
daemon:x:2:2:daemon:/sbin:/sbin/nologin
adm:x:3:4:adm:/var/adm:/sbin/nologin
lp:x:4:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/sbin/nologin
sync:x:5:0:sync:/sbin:/bin/sync
shutdown:x:6:0:shutdown:/sbin:/sbin/shutdown
halt:x:7:0:halt:/sbin:/sbin/halt
mail:x:8:12:mail:/var/spool/mail:/sbin/nologin
news:x:9:13:news:/etc/news:
uucp:x:10:14:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/sbin/nologin
operator:x:11:0:operator:/root:/sbin/nologin
games:x:12:100:games:/usr/games:/sbin/nologin
gopher:x:13:30:gopher:/var/gopher:/sbin/nologin
ftp:x:14:50:FTP User:/var/ftp:/sbin/nologin
nobody:x:99:99:Nobody:/:/sbin/nologin
vcsa:x:69:69:virtual console memory owner:/dev:/sbin/nologin
pcap:x:77:77::/var/arpwatch:/sbin/nologin
dbus:x:81:81:System message bus:/:/sbin/nologin
rpc:x:32:32:Portmapper RPC user:/:/sbin/nologin
mailnull:x:47:47::/var/spool/mqueue:/sbin/nologin
smmsp:x:51:51::/var/spool/mqueue:/sbin/nologin
sshd:x:74:74:Privilege-separated SSH:/var/empty/sshd:/sbin/nologin
haldaemon:x:68:68:HAL daemon:/:/sbin/nologin
avahi-autoipd:x:100:102:avahi-autoipd:/var/lib/avahi-autoipd:/sbin/nologin
ntp:x:38:38::/etc/ntp:/sbin/nologin
apache:x:48:48:Apache:/var/www:/sbin/nologin

… and it appears to be in the correct group (last line)…

[root@host logs]# cat /etc/group
root:x:0:root
bin:x:1:root,bin,daemon
daemon:x:2:root,bin,daemon
sys:x:3:root,bin,adm
adm:x:4:root,adm,daemon
tty:x:5:
disk:x:6:root
lp:x:7:daemon,lp
mem:x:8:
kmem:x:9:
wheel:x:10:root
mail:x:12:mail
news:x:13:news
uucp:x:14:uucp
man:x:15:
games:x:20:
gopher:x:30:
dip:x:40:
ftp:x:50:
lock:x:54:
nobody:x:99:
users:x:100:
utmp:x:22:
utempter:x:35:
floppy:x:19:
vcsa:x:69:
pcap:x:77:
slocate:x:21:
dbus:x:81:
audio:x:63:
rpc:x:32:
mailnull:x:47:
smmsp:x:51:
sshd:x:74:
ecryptfs:x:101:
haldaemon:x:68:
avahi-autoipd:x:102:
screen:x:84:
ntp:x:38:
apache:x:48:

As for making apache (user) writeable to apache (group) - I don't know how to do that.

I can change the permissions, though.

[root@host logs]# ls -lsh
total 4.0K
4.0K -rw-r--r-- 1 apache apache 1 May 30 08:47 access.log
   0 -rw-r--r-- 1 apache apache 0 May 30 08:47 error.log

I don't know if this helps, bit on one of my centos 5 systems Apache (1, not 2) the logs are owned by root (and group root as well).

@haus:Tried changing back to root, but no luck. Thanks anyway.

I am running out of ideas. My next step will be to rebuild the box and start from scratch.

If that doesn't work, I don't know what will.

So after I backed up my files to another partition, deleted the current CentOS partition and created another, then reconfigured it as per the LAMP instructions linked earlier, I finally have an "OK" instead of "FAILED"!

In rebuilding, I remembered two other things I did to the old install:

1. Install and remove squid, and

2. remove the squid user.

Apparently they don't coexist very well.

Regardless, thank you obs, otherbbs and haus for your help and patience!