Do I need to have a favicon on my site? How do I get rid of the errors I see in my apache log?

Question

I keep seeing favicon warnings in my apache log. How do I get rid of those? Do I have to have a favicon for my site?

Answer 1

Johan Petersson provides a good answer to preventing file not found errors without using a favicon at http://www.trilithium.com/johan/2005/02/no-favicon/

Placing the following code in the Virtual Host section of httpd.conf (or wherever you define your site environment), should stop the errors appearing in the Apache error log:

# Don't bother looking for favicon.ico
Redirect 404 /favicon.ico

# Don't bother sending the custom error page for favicon.ico
<Location /favicon.ico>
    ErrorDocument 404 "No favicon
</Location>

Alternatively, you can create a blank file and name it favicon.ico, placing it in the root directory of the site.