2.5.1. ServerName

ServerName hostname 
Server config, virtual host

2.5.2. DocumentRoot

This directive sets the directory from which Apache will serve files.

DocumentRoot directory
Default: /usr/local/apache/htdocs
Server config, virtual host

Unless matched by a directive like Alias, the server appends the path from the requested URL to the document root to make the path to the document. For example:

DocumentRoot /usr/web

An access to http://www.www.my.host.com/index.html now refers to /usr/web/index.html.

There appears to be a bug in the relevant Module, mod_dir, that causes problems when the directory specified in DocumentRoot has a trailing slash (e.g., DocumentRoot /usr/web/), so please avoid that. It is worth bearing in mind that the deeper DocumentRoot goes, the longer it takes Apache to check out the directories. For the sake of performance, adopt the British Army's universal motto: KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)!

2.5.3. ServerRoot

ServerRoot specifies where the subdirectories conf and logs can be found.

ServerRoot directory
Default directory: /usr/local/etc/httpd
Server config

If you start Apache with the -f (file) option, you need to include the ServerRoot directive. On the other hand, if you use the -d (directory) option, as we do, this directive is not needed.

2.5.4. ErrorLog

ErrorLog filename|syslog[:facility] 
Default: ErrorLog logs/error_log
Server config, virtual host

If the filename does not begin with a slash (/), it is assumed to be relative to the server root.

If the filename begins with a pipe (|), it is assumed to be a command to spawn a file to handle the error log.

Apache 1.3 and above: using syslog instead of a filename enables logging via syslogd(8) if the system supports it. The default is to use syslog facility local7, but you can override this by using the syslog:facility syntax, where facility can be one of the names usually documented in syslog(1).

Your security could be compromised if the directory where log files are stored is writable by anyone other than the user who starts the server.

2.5.5. PidFile

A useful piece of information about an executing process is its PID number. This is available under both Unix and Win32 in the PidFile, and this directive allows you to change its location.

PidFile file
Default file: logs/httpd.pid
Server config

By default, it is in ... /logs/httpd.pid. However, only Unix allows you to do anything easily with it; namely, to kill the process.

2.5.6. TypesConfig

This directive sets the path and filename to find the mime.types file if it isn't in the default position.

TypesConfig filename 
Default: conf/mime.types
Server config 

2.5.7. Inclusions into the Config file

You may want to include material from elsewhere into the Config file. You either just paste it in, or you use the Include directive:

Include filename
Server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess