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<title>apachectl - Apache HTTP Server Control Interface - Apache HTTP Server Version 2.4</title>
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<p class="menu"><a href="../mod/">Modules</a> | <a href="../mod/directives.html">Directives</a> | <a href="http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/FAQ">FAQ</a> | <a href="../glossary.html">Glossary</a> | <a href="../sitemap.html">Sitemap</a></p>
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<a href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</a> > <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/">HTTP Server</a> > <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/">Documentation</a> > <a href="../">Version 2.4</a> > <a href="./">Programs</a></div><div id="page-content"><div id="preamble"><h1>apachectl - Apache HTTP Server Control Interface</h1>
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<p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="../en/programs/apachectl.html" title="English"> en </a> |
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<p><code>apachectl</code> 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
<code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code> daemon.</p>
<p>The <code>apachectl</code> script can operate in two modes.
First, it can act as a simple front-end to the <code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code>
command that simply sets any necessary environment variables and
then invokes <code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code>, passing through any command line
arguments. Second, <code>apachectl</code> can act as a SysV init
script, taking simple one-word arguments like <code>start</code>,
<code>restart</code>, and <code>stop</code>, and translating them
into appropriate signals to <code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code>.</p>
<p>If your Apache installation uses non-standard paths, you will
need to edit the <code>apachectl</code> script to set the
appropriate paths to the <code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code> binary. You can also
specify any necessary <code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code> command line arguments.
See the comments in the script for details.</p>
<p>The <code>apachectl</code> script returns a 0 exit value on
success, and >0 if an error occurs. For more details, view
the comments in the script.</p>
</div>
<div id="quickview"><a href="https://www.apache.org/foundation/contributing.html" class="badge"><img src="https://www.apache.org/images/SupportApache-small.png" alt="Support Apache!" /></a><ul id="toc"><li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#synopsis">Synopsis</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#options">Options</a></li>
</ul><h3>See also</h3><ul class="seealso"><li><a href="../invoking.html">Starting Apache</a></li><li><a href="../stopping.html">Stopping Apache</a></li><li><a href="../configuring.html">Configuration Files</a></li><li><a href="../platform/">Platform Docs</a></li><li><code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code></li><li><a href="#comments_section">Comments</a></li></ul></div>
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<div class="section">
<h2><a name="synopsis" id="synopsis">Synopsis</a></h2>
<p>When acting in pass-through mode, <code>apachectl</code> can take
all the arguments available for the <code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code>
binary.</p>
<p><code><strong>apachectl</strong> [ <var>httpd-argument</var> ]</code></p>
<p>When acting in SysV init mode, <code>apachectl</code> takes simple,
one-word commands, defined below.</p>
<p><code><strong>apachectl</strong> <var>command</var></code></p>
</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="options" id="options">Options</a></h2>
<p>Only the SysV init-style options are defined here. Other arguments
are defined on the <code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code> manual page.</p>
<dl>
<dt><code>start</code></dt>
<dd>Start the Apache <code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code> daemon. Gives an error if it
is already running. This is equivalent to <code>apachectl -k
start</code>.</dd>
<dt><code>stop</code></dt>
<dd>Stops the Apache <code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code> daemon. This is equivalent to
<code>apachectl -k stop</code>.</dd>
<dt><code>restart</code></dt>
<dd>Restarts the Apache <code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code> daemon. If the daemon is
not running, it is started. This command automatically checks the
configuration files as in <code>configtest</code> before initiating
the restart to make sure the daemon doesn't die. This is equivalent
to <code>apachectl -k restart</code>.</dd>
<dt><code>fullstatus</code></dt>
<dd>Displays a full status report from <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_status.html">mod_status</a></code>.
For this to work, you need to have <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_status.html">mod_status</a></code> enabled
on your server and a text-based browser such as <code>lynx</code>
available on your system. The URL used to access the status report
can be set by editing the <code>STATUSURL</code> variable in the
script.</dd>
<dt><code>status</code></dt>
<dd>Displays a brief status report. Similar to the
<code>fullstatus</code> option, except that the list of requests
currently being served is omitted.</dd>
<dt><code>graceful</code></dt>
<dd>Gracefully restarts the Apache <code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code> 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 <code>configtest</code> before initiating the
restart to make sure Apache doesn't die. This is equivalent to
<code>apachectl -k graceful</code>.</dd>
<dt><code>graceful-stop</code></dt>
<dd>Gracefully stops the Apache <code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code> 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 <code>apachectl -k graceful-stop</code>.</dd>
<dt><code>configtest</code></dt>
<dd>Run a configuration file syntax test. It parses the configuration
files and either reports <code>Syntax Ok</code>
or detailed information about the particular syntax error. This is
equivalent to <code>apachectl -t</code>.</dd>
</dl>
<p>The following option was available in earlier versions but has been removed.</p>
<dl>
<dt><code>startssl</code></dt>
<dd>To start <code class="program"><a href="../programs/httpd.html">httpd</a></code> with SSL support, you should edit
your configuration file to include the relevant directives and then
use the normal <code>apachectl start</code>.</dd>
</dl>
</div></div>
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<a href="../tr/programs/apachectl.html" hreflang="tr" rel="alternate" title="Türkçe"> tr </a></p>
</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img src="../images/up.gif" alt="top" /></a></div><div class="section"><h2><a id="comments_section" name="comments_section">Comments</a></h2><div class="warning"><strong>Notice:</strong><br />This is not a Q&A section. Comments placed here should be pointed towards suggestions on improving the documentation or server, and may be removed by our moderators if they are either implemented or considered invalid/off-topic. Questions on how to manage the Apache HTTP Server should be directed at either our IRC channel, #httpd, on Libera.chat, or sent to our <a href="https://httpd.apache.org/lists.html">mailing lists</a>.</div>
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