Apache HTTP Server Version 2.0
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.
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
Only the SysV init-style options are defined here. Other arguments are defined on the httpd
manual page.
start
httpd
daemon. Gives an error if it is already running. This is equivalent to apachectl -k start
.stop
httpd
daemon. This is equivalent to apachectl -k stop
.restart
httpd
daemon. If the daemon is not running, it is started. This command automatically checks the configuration files as in configtest
before initiating the restart to make sure the daemon doesn't die. This is equivalent to apachectl -k restart
.fullstatus
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
fullstatus
option, except that the list of requests currently being served is omitted.graceful
httpd
daemon. 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 in configtest
before initiating the restart to make sure Apache doesn't die. This is equivalent to apachectl -k graceful
.configtest
Syntax Ok
or detailed information about the particular syntax error. This is equivalent to apachectl -t
.The following additional option is available, but deprecated.
startssl
apachectl -k start -DSSL
. We recommend that you use that command explicitly, or you adjust your httpd.conf
to remove the <IfDefine>
section so that SSL will always be available.