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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-13T21:22:12+00:00

Something that I’ve noticed recently on two different machines is that Apache2 installed via

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Something that I’ve noticed recently on two different machines is that Apache2 installed via MacPorts seems to have stopped launching when I boot up. The honest truth is that I can’t swear it did so before, but it’s something I think I’d notice because installing the LaunchDaemon is part of my install process. In fact, if I try to reload the LaunchDaemon, it fails:

$ sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.apache2.plist
org.macports.apache2: Already loaded

Unless I start Apache manually (using sudo apachectl restart), grep’ing for either “apache2” or “httpd” in my process list only produces this:

$ sudo ps -ef | egrep "apache2|httpd"
    0    52     1   0   0:00.06 ??         0:00.08 /opt/local/bin/daemondo --label=apache2 --start-cmd /opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.apache2/apache2.wrapper start ; --stop-cmd /opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.apache2/apache2.wrapper stop ; --restart-cmd /opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.apache2/apache2.wrapper restart ; --pid=none

1410639199 6960 6792 0 0:00.00 ttys001 0:00.00 egrep apache2|httpd

Looks like the daemon itself is in place, but no executable. As far as I know/can tell, the relevant executables (httpd and apachectl) are executable by everyone.

Has anyone else noticed this? Any ideas?

UPDATE

As requested below, I did execute launchctl list. The list is long and I’m not sure how to snip it, but suffice to say that no org.macports.* items are listed. That in itself is interesting because my MySQL daemon is loaded the same way. It works, but also doesn’t appear in the list. Let me know if the entire output is really needed.

UPDATE

I assumed that I had executed launchctl list under sudo, but prompted by mipadi’s comment below, I tried again ensuring that I did so and I assumed incorrectly. When executed under sudo, the MacPorts items appear:

51  -   org.macports.mysql5
52  -   org.macports.apache2

I’m not sure whether that will help, but it’s a little more info nonetheless.

UPDATE

I’ve asked a different, but related, question at LaunchDaemons and Environment Variables. I’ll update both questions as I learn more.

UPDATE

Today, based on mailing list input, I tried using a wildcard home directory. Academically, it’s a little more inclusive than I’d like, but the practical reality is that I’m the only one using this computer; certainly the only one who’d have Apache config files laying around.

Include "/Users/*/Dropbox/Application Support/apache/conf.d.osx/*.conf"
Include "/Users/*/Library/Application Support/MacPorts/apache/conf.d/*.conf"

Unfortunately…

httpd: Syntax error on line 512 of /opt/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf: Wildcard patterns not allowed in Include /Users/*/Dropbox/Application Support/apache/conf.d.osx/*.conf
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Since I now know why Apache has stopped loading on startup, I’m going to articulate that answer and mark this question as answered. The reason Apache has stopped launching on boot is that I’m trying to share an httpd.conf file across systems. The config file needs to Include files from directories that exist within my home directory. Since the home directory is different on each machine, I was trying to reference the ${HOME} environment variable.

    This works fine when manually starting after the machine is booted, but fails on startup because the environment variable isn’t yet set. As mentioned above, see this question for more information.

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