A web server software is an important and unavoidable aspect of servers, as we know that Apache server is the widely used web server. In some scenarios, you need to edit the Apache server configuration file for any reasons. Whenever you make any changes in the apache server configuration file i.e httpd.conf, we need to check for this validity and it should be an error-free. In the case of any errors, that may affect the overall server performance. So whenever the changes are made in httpd.conf file, it is recommended to test the apache config file.
Command to test the apache configuration file,
apachectl configtest
apachectl is the front end of the Apache Server i.e Apache Http protocol, this apachectl is designed to control the Apache server functioning. When you run the above command in your Linux terminal that will check for the errors in apache server configuration file and its validity. This is very much needed when you are not sure with the correction made in the web server configuration files.
If the httpd.conf file is error free then the command will produce output like “Syntax OK“, otherwise it will throw the detailed error reports about the configuration mismatch.