apachectl - Apache HTTP Server Control Interface
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
httpd daemon.
The apachectl script can operate in two modes.
First, it can act as a simple front-end to the httpd
command that simply sets any necessary environment variables and
then invokes httpd, passing through any command line
arguments. Second, apachectl can act as a SysV init
script, taking simple one-word arguments like start,
restart, and stop, and translating them
into appropriate signals to httpd.
If your Apache installation uses non-standard paths, you will
need to edit the apachectl script to set the
appropriate paths to the httpd binary. You can also
specify any necessary httpd command line arguments.
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.
Synopsis
When acting in pass-through mode, apachectl can take
all the arguments available for the httpd
binary.
apachectl [ httpd-argument ]
When acting in SysV init mode, apachectl takes simple,
one-word commands, defined below.
apachectl command
Options
Only the SysV init-style options are defined here. Other arguments
are defined on the httpd manual page.
start- Start the Apache
httpddaemon. Gives an error if it is already running. This is equivalent toapachectl -k start. stop- Stops the Apache
httpddaemon. This is equivalent toapachectl -k stop. restart- Restarts the Apache
httpddaemon. If the daemon is not running, it is started. This command automatically checks the configuration files as inconfigtestbefore initiating the restart to make sure the daemon doesn't die. This is equivalent toapachectl -k restart. fullstatus- Displays a full status report from
mod_status. For this to work, you need to havemod_statusenabled on your server and a text-based browser such aslynxavailable on your system. The URL used to access the status report can be set by editing theSTATUSURLvariable in the script. status- Displays a brief status report. Similar to the
fullstatusoption, except that the list of requests currently being served is omitted. graceful- Gracefully restarts the Apache
httpddaemon. 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 as inconfigtestbefore initiating the restart to make sure Apache doesn't die. This is equivalent toapachectl -k graceful. graceful-stop- Gracefully stops the Apache
httpddaemon. This differs from a normal stop in that currently open connections are not aborted. A side effect is that old log files will not be closed immediately. This is equivalent toapachectl -k graceful-stop. configtest- Run a configuration file syntax test. It parses the configuration
files and either reports
Syntax Okor detailed information about the particular syntax error. This is equivalent toapachectl -t.
The following option was available in earlier versions but has been removed.
startssl- To start
httpdwith SSL support, you should edit your configuration file to include the relevant directives and then use the normalapachectl start.