In message <v04011700b6baf66fdcb5@[207.246.86.31]>, cal lawton writes:
>so i've successfully installed and executed apache in the past: three on
>mac68k, two on i386. i'm no lunkhead, so i thought.
>
>/usr/pkd/sbin/httpd: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected
>
>a search of GNATS does not return a report.
>
>i've pulled the i386 binary package from three different mirrors and i'm
>getting the same error message. i'm interpreting this as trouble with the
>executable, not httpd.conf.

Without checking this particular case, in general that message means 
"this doesn't look like an executable; let's try to interpret it as a 
shell script".

What does "file" say about the executable?   What NetBSD release are 
you running?  

		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb