DocumentRoot - should it need exist?

[Michael Smith <mj...@cursci.co.uk>]

>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