Starting, Stopping, and Restarting Apache

Problem

You want to be able to start and stop the server at need, using the appropriate tools.

Solution

On Unixish systems, use the apachectl script; on Windows, use the options in the Apache folder of the Start menu.

Discussion

The basic Apache package includes tools to make it easy to control the server. For Unixish systems, this is usually a script called apachectl, but prepackaged distributions may replace or rename it. It can only perform one action at a time, and the action is specified by the argument on the command line. The options of interest are:

apachectl start: This will start the server if it isn't already running. If it is running, this option has no effect and may produce a warning message.
apachectl graceful: This option causes the server to reload its configuration files and gracefully restart its operation. Any current connections in progress are allowed to complete. The server will be started if it isn't running.
apachectl restart: Like the graceful option, this one makes the server reload its configuration files. However, existing connections are terminated immediately. If the server isn't running, this command will try to start it.
apachectl stop: This shuts the server down immediately. Any existing connections are terminated at once.

For Windows, the MSI installation of Apache includes menu items for controlling the server, as shown in Figure 1-13.

Figure 1-13. Using the Start menu to control Apache

Both of the solutions shown (for Unixish and Windows systems) illustrate the basic server control operations: start, stop, and restart. The purpose of the start and stop functions should be self-evident. Any time you modify the server-wide configuration files (such as httpd.conf), you must restart the server for the changes to take effect.