httpd(8)

httpd8

Http daemon

Usage

httpd [-dnv] [-D macro=value] [-f file]

Overview

The httpd daemon is an HTTP server with FastCGI and TLS support.

The FastCGI implementation has optional socket support. httpd can log to syslog(3) or per-server files with several standard formats.

httpd rereads its configuration file when it receives SIGHUP and reopens log files when it receives SIGUSR1.

The options are as follows:

-D macro=value

Set a macro to a value. Macros can be referenced in the configuration files.

-d

Debug mode. Create one server and don't detach or become a daemon. This allows for easy monitoring of httpd.

-f file

Specifies the configuration file. The default is /etc/httpd.conf.

-n

Check that the configuration is valid, but don't start any servers.

-v

Verbose mode. Multiple -v options increase the verbosity.

Files

/etc/httpd.conf

Default configuration file.

/etc/ssl/private/server.key

Default SSL/TLS server key.

/etc/ssl/server.crt

Default SSL/TLS server certificate.

/var/www/logs/access.log

Default access log file.

/var/www/logs/error.log

Default error log file.

Releases

59 releases since OpenBSD 2.3; the text changed 18 times.

  1. 2.3
  2. 2.4
  3. 2.5
  4. 2.6–2.9
  5. 3.0–3.1
  6. 3.2
  7. 3.3
  8. 3.4–3.6
  9. 3.7–4.1
  10. 4.2–4.3
  11. 4.4
  12. 4.5–4.7
  13. 4.8–5.5
  14. 5.6
  15. 5.7
  16. 5.8–5.9
  17. 6.0
  18. 6.1–7.2
  19. 7.3–8.0

-D since OpenBSD 3.2; -d since OpenBSD 3.2; -f since OpenBSD 3.2; -n since OpenBSD 5.6.

-4 until OpenBSD 5.5; -6 until OpenBSD 5.5; -? until OpenBSD 2.4; -C until OpenBSD 5.5; -F until OpenBSD 5.5; -L until OpenBSD 5.5; -R until OpenBSD 5.5; -S until OpenBSD 5.5; -T until OpenBSD 5.5; -U until OpenBSD 5.5; -V until OpenBSD 5.5; -X until OpenBSD 5.5; -c until OpenBSD 5.5; -h until OpenBSD 5.5; -l until OpenBSD 5.5; -t until OpenBSD 5.5; -u until OpenBSD 5.5.

History

The httpd program first appeared in OpenBSD 5.6. httpd is based on relayd(8).

Authors

The httpd program was written by Reyk Floeter ⟨[email protected]⟩.

From man 8.0-current-20261101 in OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01). Parsed by carta from the page's mdoc source.