I was playing with the apache configuration files after a system restore when I noticed something I have never really though about too much. Here are the first lines of the default /etc/apache2/sites-available/default:DocumentRoot /var/www<Directory />    Options FollowSymLinks    AllowOverride None</Directory><Directory /var/www/>    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews    AllowOverride None    Order allow,deny    allow from all </Directory>Since the root of a web server is usually /var/www, why is there the need to add a <Directory /> in here?
What's the difference between  and  in apache?
apache httpd;configuration
It could be that you somewhere in your configuration define a Directory outside of DocumentRoot (e.g. I store my static pages under DocumentRoot but have web-applications in a separate directory outside DocumentRoot).  By having <Directory /> in your configuration you define a reasonable default that's valid for every directory not specified by an own <Directory>-stanza.