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
       commands, 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
       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.

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
              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
              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
              STATUSURL 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 make sure Apache doesn't die. 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
              immediately. This is equivalent to apachectl -k graceful-stop.

       configtest
              Run a configuration file syntax test. It parses the
              configuration 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
              configuration file to include the relevant directives and then
              use the normal apachectl start.

Apache HTTP Server                2018-07-06                      APACHECTL(8)