APACHECTL(8)			   apachectl			  APACHECTL(8)



NAME
       apachectl - Apache HTTP Server Control Interface


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  com-
       mands, defined below.


       apachectl command



SUMMARY
       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 com-
       mand 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  argu-
       ments. 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.



OPTIONS
       Only the SysV init-style options are defined here. Other arguments  are
       defined on the httpd manual page.



       start  Start  the  Apache httpd daemon. Gives an error if it is already
	      running. This is equivalent to apachectl -k start.

       stop   Stops the Apache httpd daemon. This is equivalent  to  apachectl
	      -k stop.

       restart
	      Restarts	the Apache httpd daemon. If the daemon is not running,
	      it is started. This command automatically checks the  configura-
	      tion  files  as  in  configtest before initiating the restart to
	      catch the most obvious errors. However, it is still possible for
	      the  daemon  to  die because of problems with the configuration.
	      This is equivalent to apachectl -k restart.

       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 STA-
	      TUSURL 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 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 catch the most obvious errors. However, it  is  still
	      possible for the daemon to die because of problems with the con-
	      figuration. This is equivalent to apachectl -k graceful.

       graceful-stop
	      Gracefully stops the Apache httpd daemon. 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  immedi-
	      ately. This is equivalent to apachectl -k graceful-stop.

       configtest
	      Run  a  configuration file syntax test. It parses the configura-
	      tion files and either reports Syntax Ok or detailed  information
	      about  the  particular  syntax  error.  This  is	equivalent  to
	      apachectl -t.


       The following option was available in earlier  versions	but  has  been
       removed.



       startssl
	      To start httpd with SSL support, you should edit your configura-
	      tion file to include the relevant directives and	then  use  the
	      normal apachectl start.




Apache HTTP Server		  2005-09-20			  APACHECTL(8)