Something nasty has happened...

[Fahrvergnuugen]

I don't know what caused it, but I just noticed that apache was not running.
Upon trying apachectl start, I got an error message saying it couldnt start, permission denied error_log.

I checked the permissions on the log files, access_log and error_log, both were rw-r--r-- owned by root/wheel. I changed both to rwxrwxrwx.

apachectl start now gives me: /usr/sbin/apachectl start: httpd started

but I still cannot access my pages via web browser. I checked the error log and found this:
[crit] (13)Permission denied: make_sock: could not bind to port 80

Two questions:
1. How the hell did this happen in the first place.
2. How do I fix the bind to port 80 problem?

 

[Fahrvergnuugen]

It said specificly that it didn't have permission to write to the log files.
When I used chmod 777, this error went away.
Apache was definatly not running, that was the whole reason that I got into this. I went to the control panel and hit start web sharing and it hung up...so I tried starting it manually to see if there was an error message...which there was.
I eventually got apache to restart. Must be soemthing had ahold of port 80 for a few minutes. All of a sudden apache fired up.
I still don't know how the file permissions got mucked up to begin with...

 

[slur]

access_log and error_log, both were rw-r--r-- owned by root/wheel

This is the correct way for these to be, so your file permissions didn't get "mucked up." If you try to start Apache without using sudo or su then Apache will complain because root is supposed to run apachectl so that httpd can run as root.

After I start up Apache from the Web Sharing panel I can see two processes when I enter ps -auxc | grep http. One httpd process runs as 'root' and the other runs as 'www.' Is this what you see on your system?

Try changing permissions back on your apache log files and check if you are then able to start Apache from the web sharing control panel. If not then it's possible there are other factors involved. It's worth tracking down the precise cause to prevent other problems from coming up.

 

[Straylight23]

Originally posted by Fahrvergnuugen
I still don't know how the file permissions got mucked up to begin with...

Hi,
did you install anything?
Beware of installer packages "pkg" used by Apple and others.
A very good example of this is the installation oif WebObjectsa 5. Ruins your permissins entirely

You might want to read the following article:
InstallerWoes

cu:Stray

 

[Fahrvergnuugen]

Hey, thanks a lot for that link. I think that's what might have caused it, though I'm not sure which installer actually did it. I installed a few programs before realizing that my server had shut down.

I'll post here if I figure it out.