Re: DocumentRoot - should it need exist?

[Randy Terbush <ra...@zyzzyva.com>]

I agree that this should not be a fatal error. I've been bitten
by this before where I have setup a virtual host expecting the
nightly restart to enable that server, only to find that I had
fumbled the dirname or something and the server is down the next
warning.

One of those warts that we should probably remove....


> >From my experience with apache I learn that DocumentRoot needs to exist
> when the server is started - should this be necessary?  I attempted to
> set up a virtual server for various users based on a particular
> subdirectory of theirs, which they would need to create if they wanted
> to use their virtual server.  Then apache refused to start without those
> directories existing.  This could be a worry in the future aswell, as a
> restart would fail if someone deleted their DocumentRoot.  I can't see
> any technical reason why this should need to exist - but maybe that just
> shows my lack of understanding of servers :)
> 
> Mike