Apache HTTPD reload

Question

Does anyone know if while Apache HTTPD is doing a reload (which, let's say, takes five seconds) can it still serve requests during that time?

score 38 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 13 '15 at 13:12

38

First of all, you say reload, but assuming you mean 'reload' OR 'restart':

   /my/path/to/httpd restart

Causes the current httpd process to exit, which means for a time the server appears to be down, as in not serving any requests.

Reload on the other side:

    /my/path/to/httpd reload

Does not cause the current server to exit, which means connections are never refused and thus the server never looks down (but is rather slow for a little while)
Will cause all long running httpd daemon requests to exit

edited Jul 13 '15 at 13:12

kramer65

answered Mar 22 '09 at 22:08

karim79

1

Hi. Thanks for your answer. Sorry, I didn't mean 'reload' or 'restart'. Just 'reload'. I understand that a 'restart' brings the whole server down. I was just wondering about the 'reload'. – Luke Mar 22 '09 at 22:19
No worries, it's better to be clear about the difference between the two anyway. Hope that helped you. – karim79 Mar 22 '09 at 22:22
? http://mail.lon-capa.org/pipermail/lon-capa-admin/2004-July/000606.html ? – Marc Gravell Jul 30 '10 at 05:31
1

I would like add to this answer, that if you `reload` apache with errors in config file nothing will happen, while if you `restart` apache server it will get down, and could not start because of errors in config file. – Krystian Nov 25 '13 at 22:00
"Will cause all long running httpd daemon requests to exit": do you have a source for this? – marcovtwout Sep 29 '15 at 07:33

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 22 '09 at 21:52

5

As far as I know, no. However there is a graceful restart which stops child nodes halting mid-request which I think takes care of this.

answered Mar 22 '09 at 21:52

Ross

2 Answers2