Comments on: Apache 2 follies http://blog.johnjosephbachir.org/2006/04/08/apache-2-follies/ John Joseph Bachir's blog Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:01:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Kevin http://blog.johnjosephbachir.org/2006/04/08/apache-2-follies/#comment-24822 Kevin Mon, 10 Apr 2006 07:29:22 +0000 http://blog.johnjosephbachir.org/276#comment-24822 I think Apache behaves this way because it's usually started by an init script on a server. In that context it's most convenient for Apache to communicate problems by logging them (since logs are probably being monitored for error messages, while the console isn't) and return a nonzero exit code (which the script can detect and print a standard error message). Unfortunately you can't perceive either of those things when you run apache directly. Personally I think that the inability to write to error_log is a justified reason to halt, but when other logs are not writeable the process should start, post an error message to error_log (and possibly to stderr too), and continue operating. In particular, if /var fills up over the weekend, I'd rather have my web server continue operating but stop logging accesses, than stop doing anything at all. On the other hand, a lot of ancillary things (like traffic monitoring) rely on Apache's access logs, so maybe considering them to be optional just opens the door to hard-to-diagnose bugs in those programs. I think Apache behaves this way because it’s usually started by an init script on a server. In that context it’s most convenient for Apache to communicate problems by logging them (since logs are probably being monitored for error messages, while the console isn’t) and return a nonzero exit code (which the script can detect and print a standard error message). Unfortunately you can’t perceive either of those things when you run apache directly.

Personally I think that the inability to write to error_log is a justified reason to halt, but when other logs are not writeable the process should start, post an error message to error_log (and possibly to stderr too), and continue operating. In particular, if /var fills up over the weekend, I’d rather have my web server continue operating but stop logging accesses, than stop doing anything at all.

On the other hand, a lot of ancillary things (like traffic monitoring) rely on Apache’s access logs, so maybe considering them to be optional just opens the door to hard-to-diagnose bugs in those programs.

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