How do I find out how macPorts stole my port:80?

Question

I had MAMP installed (and working fine) then I tried to install mongoDB through macPorts. macports then began installing a bunch of dependencies. after that, http://localhost started giving an "It Works!" screen. after rebooting to see if it might fix it, I found that I could not start my MAMP server. console said this:

9/13/10 1:20:54 PM  [0x0-0x12012].de.appsolute.MAMP[133]    (48)Address already in use: make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:80

I know that macPorts did something stupid to mess with me. how can I find out what it installed thats stealing port:80?

here's some command I've tried: (:80 didn't work, so I just used 80)

$ sudo netstat -an | grep 80 
Password:
tcp46      0      0  *.80                   *.*                    LISTEN
udp6       0      0  fe80::21e:52ff:f.123   *.*                    
udp6       0      0  fe80::1%lo0.123        *.*   

and:

$ lsof -i :80
COMMAND   PID        USER   FD   TYPE     DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
firefox-b 451 biting_duck   39u  IPv4 0x0ab806b0      0t0  TCP 192.168.0.198:49515->stackoverflow.com:http (ESTABLISHED)
firefox-b 451 biting_duck   40u  IPv4 0x0ab87ec8      0t0  TCP 192.168.0.198:49517->sstatic.net:http (ESTABLISHED)
firefox-b 451 biting_duck   41u  IPv4 0x0ab88aec      0t0  TCP 192.168.0.198:49516->pz-in-f95.1e100.net:http (ESTABLISHED)
firefox-b 451 biting_duck   42u  IPv4 0x0ab97334      0t0  TCP 192.168.0.198:49518->sstatic.net:http (ESTABLISHED)
firefox-b 451 biting_duck   47u  IPv4 0x0ab87abc      0t0  TCP 192.168.0.198:49519->sstatic.net:http (ESTABLISHED)
firefox-b 451 biting_duck   48u  IPv4 0x0ab886e0      0t0  TCP 192.168.0.198:49520->sstatic.net:http (ESTABLISHED)
firefox-b 451 biting_duck   50u  IPv4 0x0ab89b1c      0t0  TCP 192.168.0.198:49521->sstatic.net:http (ESTABLISHED)
firefox-b 451 biting_duck   51u  IPv4 0x0ab86680      0t0  TCP 192.168.0.198:49522->peak-colo-196-216.peak.org:http (ESTABLISHED)
firefox-b 451 biting_duck   54u  IPv4 0x0ab81ef8      0t0  TCP 192.168.0.198:49523->gravatar.com:http (ESTABLISHED)
firefox-b 451 biting_duck   55u  IPv4 0x0ab82710      0t0  TCP 192.168.0.198:49524->gravatar.com:http (ESTABLISHED)
firefox-b 451 biting_duck   56u  IPv4 0x0ab8a334      0t0  TCP 192.168.0.198:49526->64.34.80.176:http (ESTABLISHED)
firefox-b 451 biting_duck   57u  IPv4 0x0ab812d4      0t0  TCP 192.168.0.198:49525->pv-in-f101.1e100.net:http (ESTABLISHED)

Answer 1

The MongoDB port doesn't install anything that would require or use port 80. Nor does any of its dependencies. Furthermore, the only way a MacPorts port could grab port 80 on startup is if it installed a launch daemon, but MacPorts doesn't activate any launch daemons on its own (you have to do that manually).

However, you can find out what program is listening on a particular port by executing

$ lsof -i :<port>

For example,

$ lsof -i :80

will show you the program listening on port 80. That should narrow down what is grabbing the port.

Answer 2

apparently, macPorts or PECL installed another apache2 server. I went to /var/log/apache2/error_log and found that it was looking at /Library/Webserver. I renamed that to Webserver.bak and the console told me that /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf couldn't find the directory. I renamed that to httpd.conf.bak and restarted. It (obviously) wasn't able to start the servers. this allowed me to start MAMP.

I noticed though, that it was still trying every 10 seconds:

9/13/10 3:00:50 PM  com.apple.launchd[1]    (org.apache.httpd) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
9/13/10 3:01:00 PM  org.apache.httpd[800]   httpd: Could not open configuration file /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf: No such file or directory
9/13/10 3:01:00 PM  com.apple.launchd[1]    (org.apache.httpd[800]) Exited with exit code: 1
9/13/10 3:01:00 PM  com.apple.launchd[1]    (org.apache.httpd) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds

so I renamed httpd.conf.bak and Websever.bak back to what they used to be and I got one more error message:

9/13/10 3:03:11 PM  org.apache.httpd[884]   (48)Address already in use: make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:80

Now its not running or trying to run. I still have no idea what it is that starts on startup that tries to start that apache2 server, but I figured out a workaround for now. If anybody knows how to remove/disable that new apache server, please let me know

Answer 3

From what you describe about launchd errors and /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf, it sounds like the copy of Apache installed with the base OS got turned on. Check System Preferences -> Services -> Web Service, and turn it off if needed. If it's not turned on there, try:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist

...and if that doesn't work, take a look in /Library/LaunchDaemons to see if something else has been installed that's launching the system copy of Apache (/usr/sbin/httpd).