Apache2 access.log has multiple lines that say "combine"

Solution 1:

Looks like a typo to me.

Here is the line in question:

CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combine

The docs state that the second argument is "either a nickname defined by a previous LogFormat directive, or it can be an explicit format string as described in the log formats section."

Because this is not a nickname defined by a previous LogFormat directive, it is treated as a format string. This means the literal word "combine" is logged.

Presumably you wanted to use the previously defined "combined" LogFormat, in which case you should just fix the typo.