Question

I’m not looking to create custom error pages, but to actually issue error messages when the config file is parsed. Specifically, I want to use an <IfModule> to throw up an error if the module hasn’t been loaded, so it’s easier to debug.

Answer 1

This is the only kludgy thing I could think of (and requires mod_rewrite enabled):

<IfModule !mod_deflate.c>
        ErrorDocument 500 "mod_deflate isn't available"
        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteRule .* - [R=500]
</IfModule>

If you find a better way to ‘trigger’ errors, I’m certainly interested 😉