# Fullchain.pem: missing, empty, or okay?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [April 6, 2020, 10:55pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/fullchain-pem-missing-empty-or-okay/118648 "2020-04-06T22:55:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gibhenry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@gibhenry](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/gibhenry)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2020, 10:55pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/fullchain-pem-missing-empty-or-okay/118648/1 "2020-04-06T22:55:17Z")
Please fill out the fields below so we can help you better. Note: you must provide your domain name to get help. Domain names for issued certificates are all made public in Certificate Transparency logs (e.g. [crt.sh | example.com](https://crt.sh/?q=example.com)), so withholding your domain name here does not increase secrecy, but only makes it harder for us to provide help. My domain is: [gibhenry.com](http://gibhenry.com) I ran this command: certbot certificates It produced this output: > Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log > > * * * > > Found the following certs: > Certificate Name: gibhenry.com-0001 > Domains: [gibhenry.com](http://gibhenry.com) > Expiry Date: 2020-07-04 18:46:28+00:00 (VALID: 88 days) > Certificate Path: /etc/letsencrypt/live/gibhenry.com-0001/fullchain.pem > Private Key Path: /etc/letsencrypt/live/gibhenry.com-0001/privkey.pem > Certificate Name: [gibhenry.com](http://gibhenry.com) > Domains: [gibhenry.com](http://gibhenry.com) [www.gibhenry.com](http://www.gibhenry.com) > Expiry Date: 2020-07-03 22:46:25+00:00 (VALID: 88 days) > Certificate Path: /etc/letsencrypt/live/gibhenry.com/fullchain.pem > Private Key Path: /etc/letsencrypt/live/gibhenry.com/privkey.pem > > * * * My web server is (include version): Apache 2.4.41 The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): MacOS 10.15.3 Catalina My hosting provider, if applicable, is: [self-hosted] I can login to a root shell on my machine (yes or no, or I don't know): Yes I'm using a control panel to manage my site (no, or provide the name and version of the control panel): No The version of my client is (e.g. output of `certbot --version` or `certbot-auto --version` if you're using Certbot): 1.3.0 I can surf to the site using http, and it redirects to https. And it passes the test at SSL Labs with a big green A. All well and good! However, apachectl (by itself) tells me > AH00112: Warning: DocumentRoot [/usr/docs/dummy-host.example.com] does not exist > AH00112: Warning: DocumentRoot [/usr/docs/dummy-host2.example.com] does not exist > **AH00526: Syntax error on line 553 of /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf:** > **SSLCertificateFile: file '/etc/letsencrypt/live/gibhenry.com/fullchain.pem' does not exist or is empty** And in fact, line 553 says > SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/gibhenry.com/fullchain.pem Listing that directory produces ``` lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 36 Apr 4 18:46 cert.pem -> ../../archive/gibhenry.com/cert1.pem lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 37 Apr 4 18:46 chain.pem -> ../../archive/gibhenry.com/chain1.pem lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 41 Apr 4 18:46 fullchain.pem -> ../../archive/gibhenry.com/fullchain1.pem lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 39 Apr 4 18:46 privkey.pem -> ../../archive/gibhenry.com/privkey1.pem ``` So, who's lying? Or is everything hunky-dory? ---
**Author:** ![stevenzhu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/stevenzhu/32/18864_2.png) [@stevenzhu](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/stevenzhu)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2020, 11:05pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/fullchain-pem-missing-empty-or-okay/118648/2 "2020-04-06T23:05:24Z")
Hi, a basic test would be try to output the certificate content. Please try the following commands: `openssl x509 -text -noout -in /etc/letsencrypt/live/gibhenry.com/fullchain.pem` and `cat /etc/letsencrypt/live/gibhenry.com/fullchain.pem` See if those commands had any meaningful outputs. P.S. Why do you create two sets of certificate, with one include www one does not? Thank you ---
**Author:** ![schoen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/user_avatar/community.letsencrypt.org/schoen/32/79_2.png) [@schoen](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/schoen)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2020, 11:46pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/fullchain-pem-missing-empty-or-okay/118648/3 "2020-04-06T23:46:18Z")
> [@gibhenry](#): > > However, apachectl (by itself) tells me Is it possible that you're running `apachectl` as a regular user rather than as root with `sudo`? This could be a confusing way for the Apache software to tell you that it's not _currently_ being run with enough permissions to read the certificate files from disk. ---
**Author:** ![gibhenry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@gibhenry](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/gibhenry)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/fullchain-pem-missing-empty-or-okay/118648/4 "2020-04-08T00:38:59Z")
Well, you’re _both_ right! First, stevenzhu’s two commands worked (when prefixed by `sudo`). And that led me to suspect that the second would work, too…and it did, thank you guys very much!! It’s magic, that `sudo`! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/letsencrypt/original/3X/c/a/ca6c06ea1ea201324bba7048c6841ce60236468d.png) [@system](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2020, 12:39am UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/fullchain-pem-missing-empty-or-okay/118648/5 "2020-05-08T00:39:08Z")
Closed on May 8, 2020, 12:39am UTC This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.