[SUMMARY] Apache httpd fails to start

From: Mohamed LRHAZI (mlrhazi@gltrade.fr)
Date: Fri Dec 17 1999 - 04:18:14 CST


Hello,

Thank you so much for your numerous reponses to my hopeless repost.
And sorry for my previous summary email I sent accidently.

My problem was:

The httpd deamon released with sunsolve 4.0.8, fails to start with the log file :

[Mon Dec 13 16:22:19 1999] getpwuid: Error 0
[Mon Dec 13 16:22:19 1999] - couldn't determine user name from uid

All the responses pointed to the same and right direction : check the userid and groupid httpd uses.

In my case, the httpd.conf file was plain empty! and adding two lines solved it all :

User nobody
Group nogroup

The best formulated response was from J.R. Lee( jrl@adc.idt.com )

> Snippits from O'Reilly's 'Apache - The definitive Guide' pg 22-23
> .
> .
> .
> ... but when we look in the logs subdirectory, we find a file called
> error_log and in it the entry:
>
> [<date>] - couldn't determine user name from uid
>
> This means more than might at first appear. We had logged in as root.
> Because of the security worries of letting outsiders log in with superuser
> powers, Apache, having been started with root permissions so that it can
> bind to port 80, has changed its userid to -1. On many UNIX systems this
> corresponds to nobody in nogroup: a harmless person. However, it seems
> that FreeBSD does not understand this notion.

> WebUser and Webgroup

> The remedy is to create a new person, who logs in safely without a shell,
> called webuser. He belongs to webgroup. On a FreeBSD system, you can run
> adduser to make this new person webuser.
> .
> .
> .
> (adding user with no shell)
> .
> .
> .
> ..., but of course FreeBSD does not know that you are making a nonexistant
> user. Having told the operating system about this user, yuou now have to
> tell Apache. Edit the file httpd.conf to include the lines:
>
> User webuser
> Group webgroup
>
> .
> .
> .

Thanx alot all.
Mohamed LRHAZI.



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