Q. I’m using CentOS / RHEL / Fedora Linux server and I’d like to restart my httpd server after making some changes to httpd.conf file. How do I restart httpd?

A. You can use service command to restart httpd. Another option is use /etc/init.d/httpd service script.

Login as root user and type the following commands:

Task: Start httpd server:

# service httpd start

Task: Restart httpd server:

# service httpd restart

Task: Stop httpd server:

# service httpd stop
Please note that restart option is a shorthand way of stopping and then starting the Apache HTTPd Server. You need to restart server whenever you make changes to httpd.conf file. It is also good idea to check configuration error before typing restart option:
# httpd -t
# httpd -t -D DUMP_VHOSTS
Sample output:

Syntax OK

Now restart httpd server:
# service httpd restart
Where,

• -t : Run syntax check for config files
• -t -D DUMP_VHOSTS : Run syntax check for config files and show parsed settings only for vhost.

/etc/init.d/httpd script

You can also use following command:
# /etc/init.d/httpd restart
# /etc/init.d/httpd start
# /etc/init.d/httpd stop

A note about Debian / Ubuntu Linux

Type the following command under Debian / Ubuntu Linux:
# /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
# /etc/init.d/apache2 stop
# /etc/init.d/apache2 start
You can also use service command under Debian / Ubuntu Linux:
# service apache2 restart
# service apache2 stop
# service apache2 start