title: mac apache /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf vs /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf
body: <p>I'm trying to understand the difference between </p>
  
  <pre><code>/private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and</p>
  
  <pre><code>/usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>on a Mac running High Sierra &amp; PHP 7.1. Changes to both these files seemed to affect my localhost when I was getting up and running (apache stopped working when I upgraded to High Sierra). Perhaps I was: 1. accidentally modifying the wrong config at times, or 2. accidentally switching between apache installs?</p>
  
  <p><code>httpd -V</code> in the terminal shows <code>SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="/usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf"</code> and <code>phpinfo()</code> has <code>Loaded Configuration File: /usr/local/php5/lib/php.ini</code> so I assume <code>/usr/local/*</code> is the correct (or just active?) configuration.  I touched these <code>/private/*</code> files during configuration but they no longer seem to be necessary:</p>
  
  <pre><code>/private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf
  /private/etc/apache2/users/{username}.conf
  /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-userdir.conf
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>These seem to be the correct configs:</p>
  
  <pre><code>/usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf
  /usr/local/etc/httpd/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What is the duplicate apache2 install in <code>/private/etc/apache2/*</code> for and can it safely be un-installed or removed?</p>