Did a little bit of Apache reading after a client query yesterday, it seems restarting httpd is not all that it seems!
start – start httpd
startssl – start httpd with SSL enabled
stop – stop httpd
restart – restart httpd if running by sending a SIGHUP or start if
not running
fullstatus – dump a full status screen; requires lynx and mod_status enabled
status – dump a short status screen; requires lynx and mod_status enabled
graceful – do a graceful restart by sending a SIGUSR1 or start if not running
Is the normal course of events from apachectl, but what about if we want to restart with SSL?
A route around this as sugeested by someone is to remove all the stuff in the apache config file, or altertively edit the HTTPD definitiona tthe top of apachectl so that it ALWAYS passes -DSSL), then use normal start/restart/graceful
Now we’re on the subject of graceful, I have found out that it mean no existing or pendings connections are lost during the restart!
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When I used to administer an apache server, I always restarted using the graceful command.
As I remember (it was a few years ago), the graceful restart stops the current request handler from accepting new connections, but allows it to deal with existing requests. Once all of its request have been dealt with it is killed off. Whilst this is happenning, a new request handler is made to deal with new requests, which then remains as the sole request handler when the other one is killed off. Quite a nice feature.