why are there many httpd process on the machine while i only started one apache httpd service?

Question

on a linux machine with apache installed, i did a search for httpd by ps -ef | grep httpd,

i saw about 10 httpd processes, why is that?

myuser  14732     1  0 Jan12 ?        00:00:10 /home/myuser/webserver/bin/httpd -k start
myuser  14736 14732  0 Jan12 ?        00:00:00 /home/myuser/webserver/bin/httpd -k start
myuser  31309 14732  0 Jan14 ?        00:00:00 /home/myuser/webserver/bin/httpd -k start
myuser  31313 14732  0 Jan14 ?        00:00:00 /home/myuser/webserver/bin/httpd -k start

thx.

Sounds similar to this thread: http://serverfault.com/questions/272296/why-do-i-have-so-many-apache2-processes — cherrun, Mar 01 '12 at 08:39

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 01 '12 at 08:27

4

You started the parent, and the parent started the worker children.

answered Mar 01 '12 at 08:27

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 01 '12 at 08:39

1

You might want to read up Apaches Documentation on MPM. This is the definitive guide. I'd also recommend reading up on how Unix Daemons work in general.

Long story (naive) and short:

You have a "controlling" process
Each "worker" process handles a client

answered Mar 01 '12 at 08:39

serverhorror

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thx for helpful comments – hetaoblog Mar 01 '12 at 12:42

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 01 '12 at 08:40

1

These are child processes, the number of which is controlled by the startservers directive to the apache prefork or worker modules.

answered Mar 01 '12 at 08:40

user9517

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why are there many httpd process on the machine while i only started one apache httpd service?

3 Answers3