Apache2 binary vanished during upgrade

[David]

On Sat, Dec 10, 2005 at 04:34:59AM -0800, Mike Bird wrote:
> On Sat, 2005-12-10 at 04:17, David wrote:
> > I've just upgraded from hoary to breezy using the install CD, 
> > then apt-get update, then apt-get upgrade.
> > 
> > Apache2 binary has vanished without trace. 
> > 
> > When I do 
> > david at test:~ $ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 start
> > nothing happens at all. 
> > 
> > david at test:~ $ sudo apache2ctl configtest
> > /usr/sbin/apache2ctl: line 88: /usr/sbin/apache2: No such file or directory
> > 
> > The last mention of apache in /var/log/dpkg.log says:
> > 
> > 2005-12-10 22:24:56 status half-configured apache2-common 2.0.54-5ubuntu3
> > 2005-12-10 22:24:56 status installed apache2-common 2.0.54-5ubuntu3

> 
> Variants of the apache2 binary are contained in the various MPM
> packages, not apache2-common.  We use apache2-mpm-prefork but
> there are other choices.

thanks for your prompt reply, but it gives rise to some questions:

* Should I have done <$ sudo apt-get install apache2-mpm-prefork> and if
so how will that affect any configs?

* when I upgrade my MAIN webserver.... the one that really matters... what
should I do to avoid the same problem?

* Why would a simple upgrade make apache2 binary disappear? It just seems 
to have been deleted. I've done sudo updatedb/locate apache2, and apache2 
binary has just vanished.

* What are the MPM packages? and how does this relate to upgrading from 
hoary to breezy? Is this something I should have "known", and if so, how? I 
didn't see anything in the upgrade or the logs about it. 

As a quick and dirty work-around, I copied the apache 2.0.53 binary from my 
other web server, and luckily it works :) I'm sure that's not the right 
thing to do.

kind regards and thanks...

David.


Further research:
<quote>
$ apt-cache show apache2-mpm-prefork
<snip>
Description: traditional model for Apache2
 This Multi-Processing Module (MPM) implements a non-threaded,
 pre-forking web server that handles requests in a manner similar to
 Apache 1.3. It is appropriate for sites that need to avoid threading for
 compatibility with non-thread-safe libraries. It is also the best MPM
 for isolating each request, so that a problem with a single request will
 not affect any other.
 .
 It is not as fast, but is considered to be more stable.
</quote>

I'm assuming this means that a different variant of apache has been chosen 
for ubuntu for the sake of stability. Is that right?