Apache is not working, pls help!!

[c98928]

All of sudden my Apache just stopped working.

I have checked that Web Sharing is on, but all I got is:
Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at 10.0.1.2.

Then I tried to restore httpd.conf file to its original version, which obviously had little help.

Later I tried to run apachectl -t to see anything wrong with the status, then I got this message:
Syntax error on line 164 of /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf:
DocumentRoot must be a directory
The actual of this line 164 reads:
DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents"
but apparently this directory does exist.

I also have another clue from /var/log/apache2/error_log:
[Fri Jun 26 16:21:55 2009] [error] [client 10.0.1.4] client denied by server configuration: /Library/WebServer/Documents
[Fri Jun 26 16:22:03 2009] [error] [client 10.0.1.4] client denied by server configuration: /Library/WebServer/Documents
[Fri Jun 26 16:22:13 2009] [error] [client 10.0.1.4] client denied by server configuration: /Library/WebServer/Documents, referer: http://10.0.1.4/
[Fri Jun 26 16:22:24 2009] [error] [client 10.0.1.4] client denied by server configuration: /Library/WebServer/Documents
[Fri Jun 26 16:22:54 2009] [error] [client 10.0.1.4] File does not exist: /Users/yaochen/Sites/test.html
[Fri Jun 26 16:22:57 2009] [error] [client 10.0.1.4] File does not exist: /Users/yaochen/Sites/test.html
[Sat Jun 27 03:40:07 2009] [warn] child process 413 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Sat Jun 27 03:40:07 2009] [warn] child process 446 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Sat Jun 27 03:40:07 2009] [warn] child process 452 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Sat Jun 27 03:40:07 2009] [warn] child process 455 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Sat Jun 27 03:40:07 2009] [warn] child process 456 still did not exit, sending a SIGTERM
[Sat Jun 27 03:40:08 2009] [notice] caught SIGTERM, shutting down

This has been driving me crazy, please, please help me!!!

[angelwatt]

Sounds like the permissions got messed up for /Library/WebServer/Documents.

[Guiyon]

OP, mind positing the output from the below command?

stat -x "/Library/WebServer/Documents"

[angelwatt]

I should note I don't use the built-in server. I use MAMP, but I have tinkered with the built-in one.
:~> stat -x /Library/WebServer/Documents/
File: "/Library/WebServer/Documents/"
Size: 1224 FileType: Directory
Mode: (0775/drwxrwxr-x) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 80/ admin)
Device: 14,2 Inode: 33259 Links: 36
Access: Sat Jun 27 07:07:06 2009
Modify: Thu May 14 20:35:44 2009
Change: Thu May 14 20:35:44 2009

[c98928]

OP, mind positing the output from the below command?

stat -x "/Library/WebServer/Documents"

Thanks for the reply, the directory pretty much does not exist:
$ stat -x "/Library/WebServer/Documents"
stat: /Library/WebServer/Documents: stat: No such file or directory

I tried earlier to make a symbolic link Documents pointing to ~/Sites but it didn't help.

What I feel weird is that I have almost done nothing since last time it worked, except for that updating Airport Express Firmware and Vmware Fusion, both which I don't think they have explicit link to this problem.

[angelwatt]

Thanks for the reply, the directory pretty much does not exist:

Make sure to create that folder then (if you haven't already). That should help it process the httpd.conf file, then you can see if your Sites folder works properly.

[c98928]

Thanks everyone for you replies,

I have solve the problem by simply changing the value of DocumentRoot to /Users/myusername/Sites.

Still not sure why it stopped working in the first place. Maybe this could help somebody else who have a similar problem.