5.2 Check Your Configuration File for Errors

Before trying to start Squid, you should verify that your squid.conf file makes sense. This is easy to do. Just run the following command:

% squid -k parse

If you see no output, the configuration file is valid, and you can proceed to the next step.

However, if your configuration file contains an error, Squid tells you about it:

squid.conf line 62: http_access allow okay2

aclParseAccessLine: ACL name 'okay2' not found.

squid check config syntax

Here you can see that the http_access directive on line 62 references an ACL that doesn't exist. Sometimes the error messages are less informative:

FATAL: Bungled squid.conf line 76: memory_pools

In this case, we forgot to put either on or off after the memory_pools directive on line 76.

It's a good idea to develop the habit of using squid -k parse every time you modify your configuration file. If you don't bother, and your file has some errors, Squid tells you about them and refuses to start anyway. If you end up managing a number of caches, it is likely that you'll develop some scripts to automate starting, stopping, and reconfiguring Squid. You can use this feature in your scripts to ensure that the configuration files are always valid.



Appendix A. Config File Reference