apachectl
is a front end to the Apache HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
server. It is designed to help the administrator control the
functioning of the Apache
apache
daemon.
NOTE:
If your Apache installation uses non-standard paths, you will need to
edit the
apachectl
script to set the appropriate paths to your PID file and your
apache
binary. See the comments in the script for details.
The
apachectl
script returns a 0 exit value on success, and >0 if an error
occurs. For more details, view the comments in the script.
The command can be any one or more of the following options:
start
Start the Apache daemon. Gives an error if it is already running.
stop
Stops the Apache daemon.
restart
Restarts the Apache daemon by sending it a SIGHUP. If the daemon
is not running, it is started.
This command automatically checks the configuration files via
configtest
before initiating the restart to make sure Apache doesn't die.
fullstatus
Displays a full status report from
mod_status.
For this to work, you need to have mod_status enabled on your server
and a text-based browser such as lynx available on your system. The
URL used to access the status report can be set by editing the
STATUSURL
variable in the script.
status
Displays a brief status report. Similar to the fullstatus option,
except that the list of requests currently being served is omitted.
graceful
Gracefully restarts the Apache daemon by sending it a SIGUSR1. If
the daemon is not running, it is started. This differs from a
normal restart in that currently open connections are not aborted.
A side effect is that old log files will not be closed immediately.
This means that if used in a log rotation script, a substantial delay may be
necessary to ensure that the old log files are closed before processing them.
This command automatically checks the configuration files via
configtest
before initiating the restart to make sure Apache doesn't die.
configtest
Run a configuration file syntax test. It parses the configuration
files and either reports
Syntax Ok
or detailed information about the particular syntax error.