Stop & Start Apache2.2 on Ubuntu 6.06

In my last post I discussed where exactly the Apache2.2 executable was located in an Ubuntu 6.06 installation. (This assumes you have installed Apache2.2 at the time of installation, or at some point subsequent.) Once you have actually installed Apache2.2 – and know where it is located on your system – you are ready to start, stop, and restart the application.

Apache advises invoking the httpd daemon via the apachectl script. The syntax to stop, start, and restart Apache2.2 is the exectuable script name followed by the parameter “-k” and then the action you wish to take [start/stop/restart]. For starting the httpd daemon, you can pass the “-f” parameter to indicate the location of the configuration file to be used for start-up, and omit the “start” action command. (I assume it is implied.)

The commands look like this:

/usr/sbin# ./apachectl -f /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

/usr/sbin# ./apachectl -k stop

/usr/sbin# ./apachectl -k restart

If you want to do things “gracefully” – and who doesn’t – you can issues the commands to stop and re-start Apache2.2 in a graceful manner. That is, the parent process “advises” the children processes to stop when they have finished serving up what they’ve got, and all others to stop immediately.

To do a graceful restart:

/usr/sbin# ./apachectl -k graceful

To do a graceful shutdown:

/usr/sbin# ./apachectl -k graceful-stop

Here is the actual manual for running Apache 2.2.