Notice about Apache in Leopard

Question

have clean Leo OS (10.5.1, not upgraded from Tiger)...
enabled web sharing, modifed httpd.conf little bit:
Listen 127.0.0.1:80
it's needed for myself only...
server works perfectly:
Apache Server Status for localhost
Server Version: Apache/2.2.6 (Unix) PHP/5.2.4 mod_ssl/2.2.6 OpenSSL/0.9.7l
Server Built: Sep 23 2007 18:07:19
Current Time: Wednesday, 16-Jan-2008 14:38:17 NOVT
Restart Time: Wednesday, 16-Jan-2008 14:31:41 NOVT
from server-status page
but there are many trash in system log file:
an 16 14:38:19 ontario com.apple.launchd[108] (org.apache.httpd): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
Jan 16 14:38:29 ontario org.apache.httpd[10347]: (13)Permission denied: make_sock: could not bind to address 127.0.0.1:80
Jan 16 14:38:29 ontario org.apache.httpd[10347]: no listening sockets available, shutting down
Jan 16 14:38:29 ontario org.apache.httpd[10347]: Unable to open logs
Jan 16 14:38:29 ontario com.apple.launchd[108] (org.apache.httpd[10347]): Exited with exit code: 1
Jan 16 14:38:29 ontario com.apple.launchd[108] (org.apache.httpd): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
Jan 16 14:38:39 ontario org.apache.httpd[10348]: (13)Permission denied: make_sock: could not bind to address 127.0.0.1:80
Jan 16 14:38:39 ontario org.apache.httpd[10348]: no listening sockets available, shutting down
Jan 16 14:38:39 ontario org.apache.httpd[10348]: Unable to open logs
Jan 16 14:38:39 ontario com.apple.launchd[108] (org.apache.httpd[10348]): Exited with exit code: 1
Jan 16 14:38:39 ontario com.apple.launchd[108] (org.apache.httpd): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
everything is ok with netstat:
ctive Internet connections (including servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address (state)
tcp4 0 0 127.0.0.1.80 . LISTEN

Answer 1

My Apache has been highly customized, with several virtual hosts, but I was getting the same errors in the console that this thread mentions. So I hope my solution helps some of you.
First, make sure your main (default) error log exists and can be written to. Open the Terminal, and enter:
sudo mkdir /private/var/log/apache2
This may return telling you that it's already there. It should ask for your password before trying. Next, make sure the error_log exists:
sudo touch /private/var/log/apache2/error_log
My gotcha was that I'm using an Apache compiled from MacPorts, and so my default error_log wasn't in that location. I found it (and all other possible logs) with this command:
locate error_log
It should give you a list of files that have "error_log" in their name. One of them should be getting written to every time the console reports that message "Exited with exit code: 1", so you may need to "ls -l" on a few of the directories to find out which one has recently changed. To find out what the error is that is stopping Apache from launching, enter:
tail /private/var/log/apache2/error_log
Use the path of the error_log that has recently changed. For example, mine was:
tail /opt/local/apache2/logs/error_log
This command reported:
(2)No such file or directory: httpd: could not open error log file /Users/bcurtis/Sites/bivia.com/newdev/log/errors.development.log.
Unable to open logs
This was a log that one of the virtual hosts wanted to write to, related to a Ruby on Rails config, which might explain why not everyone is having this problem. I just had to create the directory /Users/bcurtis/Sites/bivia.com/newdev/log/ in the Finder, and Apache started up just fine.
Hope this helps someone!
+Ben