[wolfen]

I've been going to the O'Reilly articles on Apache on OSX: http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/ma...t2.html?page=1

I took out a few #"s from the config file. When I try to save and overwrite the existing httpd.conf, it says "Couldn't save document as /etc/httpd/httpd.conf."

I verified permissions. The directory won't even let me save any file into it.

Anyone have any idea?


wolfen

[Simon Mundy]

Are you making these updates as a regular old user, or as a super-user?

The two easiest ways I know of doing this are:

1) Get a copy of BBEdit full edition, and use the authentication feature to unlock root files. It's one of the easiest and most convenient ways to update your httpd.conf files (and a lot of other system-level files)

2) Learn the terminal and do it for free.

sudo su
(Type in your administrator password)
pico /etc/httpd.conf

(Make your changes and navigate around using either the cursor keys, or CTRL-Y for page up / CTRL-V for page down)

Ctrl-O to save your changes
Ctrl-X to exit the program

Voila!

[Rainy Day]

Really, it is best not to edit http.conf directly under MacOS X, so you can side-step this issue altogether. Notice the last line of Apple's http.conf file:

   Include /private/etc/httpd/users

That's intended to load http.conf customizations for individual users on your Mac. What it does, effectively, is append every file in the directory /private/etc/httpd/users/, in alphabetical order, to your /etc/httpd/httpd.conf file. So if you place a file containing only the customizations you would otherwise make to /etc/httpd/httpd.conf in the directory /private/etc/httpd/users/, your customizations will always be in effect without ever editing your /etc/httpd/httpd.conf file. Slick, eh? This also saves you from having to re-edit this file if Apple should change it during a system update (folks here on this list have been complaining about this recently, and it is so easily avoided!)

Important safety tip: Every file in /private/etc/httpd/users/ is appended to your /etc/httpd/httpd.conf file, even files with suffixes like ".bak", so keep your backup files in another directory, else they are likely to override the changes you're making in your primary file (e.g. my.httpd.conf.bak would load after my.httpd.conf, which might undo the edits you've made and send you off chasing your tail for hours while trying to figure out why the changes you're making don't seem to work properly -- of course i was never caught by this snare! ).