APACHECTL(8)

NAME
apachectl - Apache HTTP server control interface

SYNOPSIS
apachectl command [...]

DESCRIPTION
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(8) daemon.

command can be any one or more of the following options:

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.

fullstatus
    Display 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(1) available on your system. The URL used to access the status report can be set by editing the STATUSURL variable in the apachectl script.

graceful
    Gracefully restart httpd(8) by sending it a SIGUSR1. 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 via configtest before initiating the restart to make sure httpd doesn't die.

help
    Display a short help message.

restart
    Restart httpd(8) by sending it a SIGHUP. If the daemon is not running, it is started. This command automatically checks the configuration files via configtest before initiating the restart to make sure httpd(8) doesn't die. If httpd runs chrooted (default in OpenBSD) and 3rd party modules are loaded, restart may fail due to path inconsistency. Completely stop and start the daemon instead.

start
    Start httpd(8). If the daemon is already running, a warning is given and no action is taken.

startssl
    Start httpd(8) with SSL enabled; see ssl(8) for more information. If the daemon is already running, a warning is given and no action is taken.

status
    Display a brief status report. Similar to the fullstatus option, except that the list of requests currently being served is omitted.

stop
    Stop httpd(8).

EXIT STATUS
The exit codes returned are:

0   operation completed successfully
2   usage error
3   httpd could not be started
4   httpd could not be stopped
5   httpd could not be started during a restart
6   httpd could not be restarted during a restart
7   httpd could not be restarted during a graceful restart
8   configuration syntax error

When multiple arguments are given, only the error from the last one is reported.

SEE ALSO
httpd(8), ssl(8)

Full documentation for httpd can be found at /usr/share/doc/html/httpd/.