blob: caca67e98047f86c158249388de5002531aef5bb [file]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"><head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type" />
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" name="viewport" />
<!--
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
This file is generated from xml source: DO NOT EDIT
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
-->
<title>apachectl - Apache HTTP Server Control Interface - Apache HTTP Server Version 2.5</title>
<link href="../style/css/manual.css" rel="stylesheet" media="all" type="text/css" title="Main stylesheet" />
<link href="../style/css/manual-loose-100pc.css" rel="alternate stylesheet" media="all" type="text/css" title="No Sidebar - Default font size" />
<link href="../style/css/manual-print.css" rel="stylesheet" media="print" type="text/css" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../style/css/prettify.css" />
<script src="../style/scripts/prettify.min.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
<link href="../images/favicon.png" rel="shortcut icon" /></head>
<body id="manual-page"><div id="page-header">
<p class="menu"><a href="../mod/">Modules</a> | <a href="../mod/quickreference.html">Directives</a> | <a href="https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/httpd/FAQ">FAQ</a> | <a href="../glossary.html">Glossary</a> | <a href="../sitemap.html">Sitemap</a> | <a href="https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/enter_bug.cgi?product=Apache%20httpd-2">Report a bug</a></p>
<p class="apache">Apache HTTP Server Version 2.5</p>
<img alt="" src="../images/feather.png" /></div>
<div class="up"><a href="./"><img title="&lt;-" alt="&lt;-" src="../images/left.gif" /></a></div>
<div id="path">
<a href="https://www.apache.org/">Apache</a> &gt; <a href="https://httpd.apache.org/">HTTP Server</a> &gt; <a href="https://httpd.apache.org/docs/">Documentation</a> &gt; <a href="../">Version 2.5</a> &gt; <a href="./">Programs</a></div><div id="page-content"><div id="preamble"><h1>apachectl - Apache HTTP Server Control Interface</h1>
<button aria-label="Toggle language list" class="lang-toggle"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" stroke-width="2" stroke="currentColor" fill="none" viewBox="0 0 24 24" height="16" width="16"><circle r="10" cy="12" cx="12" /><line y2="12" x2="22" y1="12" x1="2" /><path d="M12 2a15.3 15.3 0 0 1 4 10 15.3 15.3 0 0 1-4 10 15.3 15.3 0 0 1-4-10 15.3 15.3 0 0 1 4-10z" /></svg></button>
<div class="toplang">
<p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="../en/programs/apachectl.html" title="English">&nbsp;en&nbsp;</a> |
<a href="../fr/programs/apachectl.html" hreflang="fr" rel="alternate" title="Français">&nbsp;fr&nbsp;</a> |
<a href="../ko/programs/apachectl.html" hreflang="ko" rel="alternate" title="Korean">&nbsp;ko&nbsp;</a> |
<a href="../tr/programs/apachectl.html" hreflang="tr" rel="alternate" title="Türkçe">&nbsp;tr&nbsp;</a></p>
</div>
<p><code class="program"><a href="../programs/apachectl.html">apachectl</a></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 class="program"><a href="../programs/apachectl.html">apachectl</a></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 class="program"><a href="../programs/apachectl.html">apachectl</a></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 class="program"><a href="../programs/apachectl.html">apachectl</a></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 class="program"><a href="../programs/apachectl.html">apachectl</a></code> script returns a 0 exit value on
success, and &gt;0 if an error occurs. For more details, view
the comments in the script.</p>
</div>
<div id="quickview"><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>
<li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#files">Files</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></ul></div>
<div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="synopsis" id="synopsis">Synopsis</a> <a title="Permanent link" href="#synopsis" class="permalink">&para;</a></h2>
<p>When acting in pass-through mode, <code class="program"><a href="../programs/apachectl.html">apachectl</a></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 class="program"><a href="../programs/apachectl.html">apachectl</a></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> <a title="Permanent link" href="#options" class="permalink">&para;</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 class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="files" id="files">Files</a> <a title="Permanent link" href="#files" class="permalink">&para;</a></h2>
<p>The default paths listed below may be changed at compile time.
Consult your local installation for the actual locations.</p>
<dl>
<dt><code>/usr/local/apache2/bin/envvars</code></dt>
<dd>Environment variable settings sourced at startup.</dd>
<dt><code>/usr/local/apache2/bin/httpd</code></dt>
<dd>The httpd binary invoked by apachectl.</dd>
</dl>
</div></div>
<div class="bottomlang">
<p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="../en/programs/apachectl.html" title="English">&nbsp;en&nbsp;</a> |
<a href="../fr/programs/apachectl.html" hreflang="fr" rel="alternate" title="Français">&nbsp;fr&nbsp;</a> |
<a href="../ko/programs/apachectl.html" hreflang="ko" rel="alternate" title="Korean">&nbsp;ko&nbsp;</a> |
<a href="../tr/programs/apachectl.html" hreflang="tr" rel="alternate" title="Türkçe">&nbsp;tr&nbsp;</a></p>
</div><div id="footer">
<p class="apache">Copyright 2026 The Apache Software Foundation.<br />Licensed under the <a href="https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0">Apache License, Version 2.0</a>.</p>
<p class="menu"><a href="../mod/">Modules</a> | <a href="../mod/quickreference.html">Directives</a> | <a href="https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/httpd/FAQ">FAQ</a> | <a href="../glossary.html">Glossary</a> | <a href="../sitemap.html">Sitemap</a> | <a href="https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/enter_bug.cgi?product=Apache%20httpd-2">Report a bug</a></p></div><script type="text/javascript"><!--//--><![CDATA[//><!--
if (typeof(prettyPrint) !== 'undefined') {
prettyPrint();
}
var langToggle = document.querySelector('.lang-toggle');
var topLang = document.querySelector('.toplang');
if (langToggle && topLang) {
langToggle.addEventListener('click', function() { topLang.classList.toggle('open'); });
}
var qv = document.getElementById('quickview');
if (qv) {
document.body.appendChild(qv);
var qvBtn = document.createElement('button');
qvBtn.className = 'qv-toggle';
qvBtn.setAttribute('aria-label', 'Toggle page navigation');
qvBtn.innerHTML = '&#9776;';
document.body.appendChild(qvBtn);
qvBtn.addEventListener('click', function() {
var isOpen = qv.classList.toggle('open');
if (isOpen) {
qv.style.top = window.scrollY + 10 + 'px';
}
});
window.addEventListener('scroll', function() { qv.classList.remove('open'); });
}
//--><!]]></script>
</body></html>