I'm starting to get a little frustrated with the Ubuntu updates. I'm used to them messing up my sendmail installation (since they've switched to a different MTA), but after today's update (about 18 files for 50-some MB, including the kernel) I found that my Apache hadn't started.

Somewhere in the updates, the package manager saw fit to remove the /etc/init.d/apache script used to fire up the Apache HTTPD server. Yeah, I know, I should upgrade to an upstart service, but I'm lazy. The script is easy enough, and simply calls the ${APACHE_HOME}/bin/apachectl script with the path to my httpd.conf and the desired command (start, stop, etc.).

Still, Apache wasn't installed using the Ubuntu package manager, as I've chosen to build my own from source. I still haven't become comfortable with picking the various modules via the package manager, and the last time I checked, a few I wanted weren't managed yet. Since I've rolled my own, as with sendmail, I fully expect Ubuntu to leave it alone. I've installed the software in /usr/local, which should be safe, right?

Unlike sendmail, to the best of my knowledge, there isn't anything I've installed that yet requires an Apache (or other HTTP) server. So I wonder why the package manager would see fit to remove a script it didn't install.

At least the manager didn't remove the software, although it would have been an excuse to upgrade to the recently released v2.4 server. I've not yet vetted the new server and confirmed that my desired configuration and virtual hosts are compatible with the upgrade. I suspect that I'll have to rewrite some of the configuration files as at least the NameVirtualHost directive is no longer needed.

As you can see (since this is served by the Apache server) all is well again.