Apache Error log: log files that exist

after move from Apache 1.3 to new server Apache 2.2.4

[frelliot]

Hello,

I have moved my sites from old server with Apache 1.3 to new one with Apache 2.2.4. Since that time, the error log is full of these lines:
Code:

[Wed Jul 04 05:36:32 2007] [error] [client 212.**.9.194] File does not exist: /home/domain/public_html/russia
[Wed Jul 04 05:36:39 2007] [error] [client 212.**.9.194] File does not exist: /home/domain/public_html/russia
[Wed Jul 04 05:36:45 2007] [error] [client 213.***.18.2] File does not exist: /home/domain/public_html/italy
[Wed Jul 04 05:36:57 2007] [error] [client 83.8.***.181] File does not exist: /home/domain/public_html/mexico
 

The access logs show even more accesses, so sometimes the same page is ok, sometimes it is logged here.
The strange thing is that these files (pages) exist! They are accessible through the browser without any problem.

Do you have any idea where could be the problem? It would helped me lot, I am unable to find any real problem now, when error log is full of these.

Thanks a lot for any suggestions.

Regards,
frelliot.

Note: My OS is Ubuntu 6.06. I use mod_rewrite through .htaccess. I can provide list of apache modules, if it helps.

[edited by: jdMorgan at 3:31 pm (utc) on July 5, 2007]
[edit reason] Obscured IP address. [/edit]

[jdMorgan]

> The strange thing is that these files (pages) exist! They are accessible through the browser without any problem.

That is the key right there... These *pages* (URLs) exist, but that is not what the error log says. The error log says that the named *files* do not exist. And it is unlikely that you actually have *files* on your server that have no extension.

The error message is telling you that Apache cannot find a *file* named "mexico" in /public_html on the server.

This points to a problem with the code you are using to rewrite extensionless URLs to filenames -- It is apparently NOT working all the time.

Be careful with the distinction between URLs and files -- They're two different naming systems for two different namespaces; Keeping them separate in your mind will be very helpful when dealing with servers. For example, mod_rewrite, when used to internally rewrite requests, acts as a URL-to-filename translator that can be used to perform "non-default" translation of a requested URL to a corresponding server filepath.

Jim