Error starting Apache (httpd start fails)

[cfspence]

Advance apologies for the utter novice question.:o

In attempting to fix a slow server problem, I have somehow managed to "break" Apache. It will not now start (even when the system reboots).

Here is the error message:
# /etc/init.d/httpd start
Starting httpd: (98)Address already in use: make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:80
(98)Address already in use: make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
[FAILED]


It appears that port 80 is busy and not available for listening. How do I correct this?

Thanks in advance for your help.
--Clay

[topdog]

Have you checked with netstat to see what is holding the port open ?

[unclecameron]

you could also run Top or better yet install Htop and it will show you what process is hanging, then run

kill PID#

then start apache

[falko]

Which distribution are you using, and how did you install Apache? Did you do any changes to the Apache configuration?

[cfspence]

Thanks. Here is (some) of the information you requested.

I tried reading the man pages for netstat and I'm still not sure I have issued the command with the correct options - I tried several. It's still not obvious to me what is holding port 80 open. I would be happy to post some of the output if requested. There is no output (other than the column heading) if I simply issue netstat without options.

I have not installed HTop but did try running top. It is not obvious to me that there is a process that is hanging - how could I tell?

I installed Apache during the fc6 install (essentially following the "Installing a LAMP System with Fedora Core 6" how-to on how-to-forge). I may have may configuration changes but I don't think so (sorry to be so vague). I could post the httpd.conf file if that would be helpful. Here is the result of httpd -V:
[root@gnlewis log]# /usr/sbin/httpd -V
Server version: Apache/2.2.6 (Unix)
Server built: Sep 18 2007 11:26:13
Server's Module Magic Number: 20051115:5
Server loaded: APR 1.2.7, APR-Util 1.2.8
Compiled using: APR 1.2.7, APR-Util 1.2.8
Architecture: 32-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_SYSVSEM_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="/etc/httpd"
-D SUEXEC_BIN="/usr/sbin/suexec"
-D DEFAULT_PIDLOG="logs/httpd.pid"
-D DEFAULT_SCOREBOARD="logs/apache_runtime_status"
-D DEFAULT_LOCKFILE="logs/accept.lock"
-D DEFAULT_ERRORLOG="logs/error_log"
-D AP_TYPES_CONFIG_FILE="conf/mime.types"
-D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="conf/httpd.conf"


Thanks again for your help.

[topdog]

You can call netstat like this

netstat -ntlp


You can check your apache config like this

httpd -t


If you dont find the problem then maybe try strace to find out why apache is hanging.