Weird 127.0.0.1 & localhost resolution when running Apache on Mac OS X with POW/Powify installed

Question

I could not figure out why http:// localhost would resolve and http:// 127.0.0.1 would not resolve, when i was running apache, made no sence. While when running POW both would resolve.

I ve set up proper mapping in hosts file, and created VirtualHost entry in httpd-vhosts.conf file with defined ServerName that I have already mapped to 127.0.0.1. VirtualHost entry is for reverse proxy set up.

Every time i would run localhost, VirtualHost entry would work, but anytime i would try to access 127.0.0.1 or mapped domain i would be out of luck. In my case due to project(s) set up http:// localhost is not sufficient to run dev enviroment and i need mapped entry in hosts file to function.

I also use POW for my rails and sinatra apps. Had previously encountered POW issues, and to start and shutdown POW server I have installed gem Powify. Very convinient, I thought, and assumed when i run "powify server stop", that it would take care of things, which it did, for localhost resolution at least.

So how to deal with this? I ended up uninstalling POW. So the simple solution for this issue, is to completely uninstall POW, apparently due to configuration POW sets up I ended up dealing with this problem.

Due to lack of knowledge behind the scenes of what actually happens I would appreciate if some one could point out inner workings. I read up some of the articles on how to set up POW along side Apache, but would appreciate very much if someone could explain why exactly this behavior happens.

Answer 1

Ended up being about powify not removing the firewall exception and just stopped pow instance to free up some memory and processing power.

Still need to uninstall pow for firewall rule to be removed. So that you can use apache properly.