localhost not working on Big Sur (Apache & Homebrew)

Question

I know there are dozens of questions about Apache not working, but nothing seems to solve it for me. I'm on macOS Big Sur 11.0.1.

I installed Apache with brew install httpd and then brew services start httpd. Everything seems to be okay, but going to http://localhost/ gives me "This site can't be reached" error. http://127.0.0.1/ also gives that error. My /etc/hosts configuration seems to be fine.

I don't understand what's wrong. What can I do to find out the issue?

Answer 1

I assume you have tried to follow https://getgrav.org/blog/macos-bigsur-apache-multiple-php-versions tutorial. If not no worries. I followed this tutorial and I got the same issue.

As per my understanding you have updated to BigSur from previous version and there you have used sudo to install apache and php etc. Now it will not work due to permission issues.

I am able to make it run with the following steps

1. Change Listen 80 to Listen 127.0.0.1:80 in /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf
2. use sudo /usr/local/bin/httpd -k start to start your httpd

Rest follow the tutorial to install multiple versions of PHP, enabling PHP in httpd.conf file and PHP version switcher. After switching the version you must stop and start the httpd via sudo command i mentioned above.

So looks like things are working with this. I hope if I'm able to set proper permissions then I no longer need the sudo. And if you are at the tutorial, please check the comments at the bottom

Take care