Ubuntu – Smart Web Developer

Httpd.conf – What’s its Location on Ubuntu?

Here’s where to find the Apache 2 web server configuration file httpd.conf on Ubuntu.

Did you know that on Ubuntu, the main Apache configuration file is not httpd.conf? The main Apache config file is actually apache2.conf.

When Apache 2 reads apache2.conf, the contents of httpd.conf is included by an include directive in apache2.conf. Here’s the lines from apache2.conf that include httpd.conf:

# Include all the user configurations:
Include /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

So use httpd.conf on Ubuntu is specifically for your servers specific configuration. You may still need to want to edit apache2.conf at times, to change Apache’s configuration rather than add to it.

Httpd.conf Location

On Ubuntu, httpd.conf is located in the directory /etc/apache2. apache2.conf is also located in /etc/apache2.

Httpd.conf Location for Specific Ubuntu Versions

To ensure these locations are accurate, I’ve checked httpd.conf’s location on a number of different Ubuntu versions. The definitive article is Where is Httpd.conf’s Location on Ubuntu? at Ubuntu Gods.

Ubuntu Version	httpd.conf Location
Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn	/etc/apache2/httpd.conf
Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex	/etc/apache2/httpd.conf
Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat	/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Additions & refinements welcome!

To get your version of Ubuntu, run either of these commands from a terminal session.

To start a terminal session in Ubuntu’s graphical desktop go to the Applications menu and choose the Terminal item).

There are at least two ways to get the Ubuntu version.

Find the Ubuntu Version from the /etc/issue File

List the contents of the /etc/issue file to see the Ubuntu version.

taz@tasman-desktop:~$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 8.10 \n \l

Note that the contents of the /etc/issue file is displayed for local terminal logins to Ubuntu. If you don’t see Ubuntu version information like that above, then the system administrator may have edited this file. You can try the next method.

Check the Ubuntu Version from the /etc/lsb-release File

Displaying the contents of the /etc/lsb-release file will tell you the version of Ubuntu you’re running.

taz@tasman-desktop:~$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=8.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=intrepid
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 8.10"

These methods were tested on Ubuntu 8.10.