Is Apache running?

Question

I've just taken over webmastery for my company's site, and I'm preparing a report for my partner about the LAMP stack. But I'm a new CS graduate, and the only thing I know really well is Java coding, so I need some help!

I'm trying to find out a) if Apache is installed and b) what version is running.

My Linux version is "Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS \n \l", as reported by /etc/issue.

Solution 1

Is it running?

pgrep apache

Any output is good, nothing means it isn't running.

What version:

aptitude show apache2

Solution 2

Have you tried talking to it?

telnet localhost 80
HEAD / HTTP/1.0
<extra carriage return>

Solution 3

To check for Apache 1.X see below, for Apache 2.X see wzzrd's answer.

The apache web server process is called httpd so a quick way to start with confirming apache is installed and running is:

ps -A | grep 'httpd'

ps -A lists all the running processes grep 'httpd' filters only lines containing 'httpd'

If you don't get any results, apache is not running.

regarding version, try:

apachectl status

in the output there should be a line like:
Apache/1.3.41 Server at www.xyz.com Port 80

If it cannot find apachectl, it may not be in your execution path, try:
whereis apachectl
to see where it is located

These are distribution agnostic ways so no matter how apache was installed on the system, you should find it with these.

Solution 4

Click here: http://localhost If you don't get an error 404, it's running.

View more solutions

Comments

[Iain Samuel McLean Elder]

"ps -A | grep 'httpd'" produces no output.

[Iain Samuel McLean Elder]

"apachectl status" produces "-bash: apachectl: command not found"

[Iain Samuel McLean Elder]

"whereis apachectl" produces "apachectl:"

[Iain Samuel McLean Elder]

telnet localhost 80 produces -bash: telnet: command not found

[Iain Samuel McLean Elder]

/sbin/service httpd status produces -bash: /sbin/service: No such file or directory

[Iain Samuel McLean Elder]

However, ps -A | grep apache2 produces ` 2691 ? 00:00:01 apache2` and 10 other apache2 processes.

[Iain Samuel McLean Elder]

pgrep apache produces 11 lines of output.

[Iain Samuel McLean Elder]

aptitude show apache2 produces lots of output, including the line Version: 2.2.8-1ubuntu0.15.

[Iain Samuel McLean Elder]

My server instance is a VPS, so I can't just click a link on my local machine to check whether it's running.

[Iain Samuel McLean Elder]

I appreciate the amount of effort you put into your answer, but I have to mark you down because these are not "distribution agnostic" ways to determinte how apache was installed. Apparently on Ubuntu the process is called apache2. See wzzrd's answer: serverfault.com/questions/177915/is-apache-running/…

[halp]

You could run some ncurses web browser like links or lynx directly on the server.

[Marc B]

apache2 -version in a shell would also work.

[ManiacZX]

@isme, actually, that isn't a distribution issue but an apache major version issue. I was referencing a box with apache 1.x on it. The instructions would have worked on Ubuntu with apache 1.x and the other answer would have not produced a result.

[Denys]

You should consider installing it or something with similar functionality such as ncat (part of nmap 5). Talking directly to your web (or SMTP or POP or IMAP or SIP or FTP or …) server can be indispensable for troubleshooting.