How to debug an apache virtual host configuration? - apache

Question

Once again, I have a problem with my apache virtual host configuration. (The default configuration is used instead of my specific one).
The problem is not really the misconfiguration but how to solve it.
Does anyone has good advices to do resolve this kind of problem quickly?
Some more informations.
The default conf file is this one:
NameVirtualHost *
<VirtualHost *>
ServerAdmin webmaster#localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
<Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
AllowOverride None
Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.
LogLevel warn
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
ServerSignature On
Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
<Directory "/usr/share/doc/">
Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
And the virtual host config that doesn't apply is this one:
<VirtualHost *:*>
ProxyPreserveHost On
ProxyPass / http://ip.ip.ip.ip:8088/
ProxyPassReverse / http://ip.ip.ip.ip:8088/
ServerName wiki.mydomain.com
</VirtualHost>

Answer 1

Syntax check
To check configuration files for syntax errors:
# Red Hat-based (Fedora, CentOS), Arch-based and OSX
httpd -t
# Debian-based (Ubuntu)
apache2ctl -t
# MacOS
apachectl -t
List virtual hosts
To list all virtual hosts, and their locations:
# Red Hat-based (Fedora, CentOS), Arch-based and OSX
httpd -S
# Debian-based (Ubuntu)
apache2ctl -S
# MacOS
apachectl -S

Answer 2

Here's a command I think could be of some help :
apachectl -t -D DUMP_VHOSTS
You'll get a list of all the vhosts, you'll know which one is the default one and you'll make sure that your syntax is correct (same as apachectl configtest suggested by yojimbo87).
You'll also know where each vhost is declared. It can be handy if your config files are a mess. ;)

Answer 3

If you are trying to debug your virtual host configuration, you may find the Apache -S command line switch useful. That is, type the following command:
httpd -S
This command will dump out a description of how Apache parsed the configuration file. Careful examination of the IP addresses and server names may help uncover configuration mistakes. (See the docs for the httpd program for other command line options).

Answer 4

First check out config files for syntax errors with apachectl configtest and then look into apache error logs.

Answer 5

I had a new VirtualHost configuration file that was not showing when using the apachectl -S command. After much head scratching I realised that my file did not have suffix ".conf". Once I renamed the file with that suffix my Vhost started showing and working!

Answer 6

I recently had some issues with a VirtualHost. I used a2ensite to enable a host but before running a restart (which would kill the server on fail) I ran
apache2ctl -S
Which gives you some info about what's going on with your virtual hosts. It's not perfect, but it helps.

Answer 7

I found my own mistake, I did not add log file name:
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2
And this path:
Directory "/usr/share/doc/"
Did not contain website sources.
After I changed these two, all worked.
Interestingly, apache did not issue any errors, just did not open my website silently on my Mac OS Sierra.

Answer 8

a very important tool is
apachectl -t -D DUMP_INCLUDES
it showed me that the file that i was fixing and mending
was in fact included by a file that was itself not included.
thank everybody