How can I tell which config file Apache is using?

Solution 1:

With any *nix application, the easiest method is to query the binary itself. In the case of httpd, I'd imagine the process would be something like this:

$ whereis httpd
/usr/sbin/httpd
$ /usr/sbin/httpd -V
Server version: Apache/2.2.11 (Unix)
Server built:   Jun 17 2009 14:55:13
Server's Module Magic Number: 20051115:21
Server loaded:  APR 1.2.7, APR-Util 1.2.7
Compiled using: APR 1.2.7, APR-Util 1.2.7
Architecture:   64-bit
Server MPM:     Prefork
  threaded:     no
    forked:     yes (variable process count)
Server compiled with....
 -D APACHE_MPM_DIR="server/mpm/prefork"
 -D APR_HAS_SENDFILE
 -D APR_HAS_MMAP
 -D APR_HAVE_IPV6 (IPv4-mapped addresses enabled)
 -D APR_USE_FLOCK_SERIALIZE
 -D APR_USE_PTHREAD_SERIALIZE
 -D SINGLE_LISTEN_UNSERIALIZED_ACCEPT
 -D APR_HAS_OTHER_CHILD
 -D AP_HAVE_RELIABLE_PIPED_LOGS
 -D DYNAMIC_MODULE_LIMIT=128
 -D HTTPD_ROOT="/usr"
 -D SUEXEC_BIN="/usr/bin/suexec"
 -D DEFAULT_PIDLOG="/private/var/run/httpd.pid"
 -D DEFAULT_SCOREBOARD="logs/apache_runtime_status"
 -D DEFAULT_LOCKFILE="/private/var/run/accept.lock"
 -D DEFAULT_ERRORLOG="logs/error_log"
 -D AP_TYPES_CONFIG_FILE="/private/etc/apache2/mime.types"
 -D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="/private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf"

As you can see - my OS X says the binary, if not directed otherwise, will use the config file: /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

If that doesn't help, perhaps Christopher's suggestion of find is the next step.

Solution 2:

There's another serverfault question regarding this. If you're using a debian based server you can use apache2ctl to determine which config file is being used:

apache2ctl -V

More on this:

How to find out which httpd.conf apache is using at runtime

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Solution 3:

Try

ps ax | grep httpd

and you should (might) get output like

1633   ??  Ss     0:00.21 /usr/sbin/httpd -f /etc/httpd.conf

Additionally, how exactly are you restarting the server? Just curious in case you somehow aren't actually re-reading the config file.

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Solution 4:

Because some configs use Server app, brew or whatever, and because one liners FTW :

$(ps ax -o comm | grep -m 1 httpd) -V | grep SERVER_CONFIG_FILE

This command do the following :

• Find an active httpd process
• Output config info
• Grep the config file

Tested on Sierra & El Capitan