When the log directory is not created/writable, apache2 fails to start or restart. Running "apachectl configtest" gives "Syntax OK", so it doesn't report this as an error.

According to the documentation about apachectl configtest: "This test does not catch all errors.".

While this is true, I think this one should be caught because it is (I think) simple to check and prevent. Also, "apachectl configtest" checks if DocumentRoot is created and writable, so it is inconsistent (and not expected) if it checks one path, but not the other.

This 'bug' (I prefer 'missing feature'), would not be so bad if 'apachectl restart' would report that it stops working because of missing/unwritable log directories (but this is another matter).