Can't find apache error logs

Question

It seems my server doesn't have error logs . i can't find them anywhere . in info.php file there is no mention about any error log. I tried commands like pico /usr/local/apache/logs/error_log ,but of course,no results. How can i find the apache error logs and view them ?

thanks for the help

Answer 1

Default apache error log location, by distro's:

RHEL / Red Hat / CentOS / Fedora - /var/log/httpd/error_log
Debian / Ubuntu - /var/log/apache2/error.log
FreeBSD - /var/log/httpd-error.log

To find exact apache error log file location, you can use grep command:

# grep ErrorLog /usr/local/etc/apache22/httpd.conf
# grep ErrorLog /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
# grep ErrorLog /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Sample output:

# ErrorLog: The location of the error log file.
# If you do not specify an ErrorLog directive within a 
ErrorLog "/var/log/httpd-error.log"

Source.

Answer 2

To add what is already given, you can try this (if you are not sure what distro you are running):

[root@centos ~]# httpd -V
Server version: Apache/2.2.3
Server built:   May  4 2011 06:51:15
Server's Module Magic Number: 20051115:3
Server loaded:  APR 1.2.7, APR-Util 1.2.7
Compiled using: APR 1.2.7, APR-Util 1.2.7
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="run/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"

Note DEFAULT_ERRORLOG line.