How do you restart Apache?

Question

I switched from SLES to Ubuntu and now I want to restart my local server. In SLES I used:

rcapache2 restart

but this seems not to work in Ubuntu.

How do I restart Apache?

Next to apache2 there is also service apache-sp restart – Avatar Dec 16 '21 at 06:47 — Avatar, Dec 16 '21 at 06:47

score 493 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 19 '18 at 19:55

493

sudo service apache2 restart for the way that's borrowed from Red Hat.

edited Dec 19 '18 at 19:55

Uri

145

answered Oct 12 '10 at 10:51

maco

15,892

1

I think service is the LSB way, and should work in most distributions, now that Debian and Ubuntu finally got it. – Marius Gedminas Oct 12 '10 at 13:05
11

sudo restart apache2 is not working in Ubuntu 12.04. Not sure of other Ubuntu versions. – saji89 Jan 29 '13 at 07:42
2

@saji89 you need to do sudo service apache2 restart, then it will work. – Kevdog777 Sep 18 '14 at 13:09
9

sudo restart apache2 is not working in Ubuntu 14.04. sudo service apache2 restart is working tough. – toesslab Nov 22 '14 at 12:54
sudo service apache2 reload works in some case – Shurvir Mori Nov 15 '22 at 06:19
Could also be service apache-sp restart. – Avatar Mar 10 '23 at 08:31

Marius Gedminas · Answer 2 · 2016-06-02T18:40:09.680

125

Do you want to restart Apache, or do you want to gracefully reload its configuration?

Everyone was answering the first question; you can do the second with

sudo service apache2 reload

Gracefully reloading is a bit faster, and there's no downtime.

There's one caveat: if your apache config files contain an error (e.g. configures a log file in a directory that doesn't exist), the server may silently exit without printing any error messages to the console. Most other errors are caught by the apache2ctl configtest that service apache2 reload runs before doing the actual reload with apache2ctl graceful.

edited Jun 02 '16 at 18:40

answered Oct 12 '10 at 13:09

Marius Gedminas

11,340

1

Yes! Use graceful is much better if you want to restart without kicking off your web site viewers! – tommed Oct 12 '10 at 13:33
I find that it's an advantage of restart that if Apache isn't running then it will start. --> Will reload also start it? – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun Jan 05 '11 at 08:06
I don't think so -- even worse, reload will stop a running apache if you make a syntax error in the config file. – Marius Gedminas Jan 06 '11 at 20:19
3

Always run sudo apache2ctl configtest before doing graceful restart. Graceful restart will fail and apache will be stopped if config has a syntax error. – Mikko Rantalainen Jun 02 '16 at 09:17
@MikkoRantalainen: thanks, I've edited the answer to drop the raw apache2ctl graceful and instead recommend just service apache2 reload, which runs the configtest before graceful. – Marius Gedminas Jun 02 '16 at 18:41

score 29 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 12 '10 at 10:55

The recommended way under Ubuntu to start/stop services (not just Apache) is to use the start/stop/reload commands (which really are symbolic links to the initctl program, part of upstart).

For services that use the legacy /etc/init.d scripts, the corresponding script will be called with the correct parameters; for services that use the upstart infrastructure, the appropriate event transition will be signaled to the upstart daemon via initctl.

So, to start/stop/reload/restart apache on Ubuntu, you can use:

sudo start apache2
sudo stop apache2
sudo reload apache2
sudo restart apache2

score 21 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 12 '10 at 10:30

21

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Of course you can swap out restart for stop, start and (I think) reload

answered Oct 12 '10 at 10:30

Oli

293,335

2

When doing this under recent Ubuntu, you get a message about doing it the new way, although it will still carry out your the desired command. – jfmessier Oct 12 '10 at 11:34
I didn't realised Apache had moved to Upstart yet. – Oli Oct 12 '10 at 11:48
1

I don't see that message anymore. – Tim Jun 09 '16 at 17:15

score 19 · Answer 5 · edited May 31 '20 at 16:37

19

Ubuntu way:

To restart:

sudo service apache2 restart|stop|start

To stop:
```
sudo service apache2 stop 
```
To start:
```
sudo service apache2 start 
```

edited May 31 '20 at 16:37

Kulfy

17,696

answered Mar 06 '13 at 15:06

toe

281

score 12 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 12 '10 at 14:38

As Marius said graceful should be used either to restart:

sudo apache2ctl graceful

or

sudo apache2ctl graceful-stop

to stop Apache gracefully.

These commands wait until all requests for web pages have been served before restarting/stopping the web server so that your user's don't get half a web page.

score 4 · Answer 7 · edited Nov 10 '21 at 19:01

You can use the systemctl command for apache service restarting; this controls the systemd system and service manager.

For Restarting Apache With systemctl Command:

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

In case of being hung up or getting no response on restarting you can use the systemctl stop command to stop the service then start with the systemctl start command. Commands are as follows -

For Stopping Apache With systemctl Command:

sudo systemctl stop apache2.service

For Starting Apache With systemctl Command:

sudo systemctl start apache2.service

You can also use the reload command for only reloading the apache service.

For Reloading Apache With systemctl Command:

sudo systemctl reload apache2.service

score 4 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 17 '16 at 14:19

4

First you check your status using this command

sudo service apache2 status

then stop the running service

sudo service apache2 stop

then use this command:

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start

this solution has worked for me.

edited Jun 17 '16 at 14:19

Byte Commander

107,489

answered Jun 09 '16 at 17:10

Md.Shahjalal

141

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 25 '19 at 21:16

2

The best way to restart your Apache server is by using the following command:

$ sudo service apache2 restart

Alter You can use the below command:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

answered Jul 25 '19 at 21:16

Razor Rassh

497

1

Command Source: Restart Apache Ubuntu – Razor Rassh Jul 25 '19 at 21:18

score 2 · Answer 10 · answered May 31 '16 at 23:14

2

you can use services for restarting Apache

service apache2 restart

and you can use all functionality for it (Stop - Start - Reload)

answered May 31 '16 at 23:14

vipmaa

121

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Sep 01 '16 at 11:20

if you are install Apache 2.4 version in your system, to start restart or stop your Apache server on your local system,then you should run following command

./apachectl start

or you can use restart, stop also as per your requirement. this is tested code

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Aug 03 '19 at 02:07

1

sudo systemctl restart apache2

systemctl - Control the systemd system and service manager.

systemctl may be used to introspect and control the state of the "systemd" system and service manager.

answered Aug 03 '19 at 02:07

Michal Przybylowicz

3,672

score -1 · Answer 13 · edited Aug 14 '11 at 21:10

-1

if you are root: (In Ubuntu root is disabled, I think, than use 'sudo' command!)

$ /etc/init.d/apache stop
$ /etc/init.d/apache start
$ /etc/init.d/apache restart
$ /etc/init.d/apache reload

(If you used a2ensite or a2dissite, you have to reload your apache configuration)

edited Aug 14 '11 at 21:10

Rinzwind

299,756

answered Oct 12 '10 at 10:35

root isn't disabled, it just doesn't have a password if you don't give it one yourself. – Mikael Auno Oct 12 '10 at 11:05
1

is //stop apache supposed to be a comment? if so, standard shell notation would be #stop apache, // doesn't work in bash – Mikel Jan 24 '11 at 08:05
@MikaelAuno root account is disabled if it doesn't have a password – T0xicCode Apr 16 '12 at 00:25
1

@xav0989 That's quite the matter of definition. Sure you can't directly log in as root, or log in as root in any way that requires root's password for that matter, but there are other ways to become root. Try for example sudo -i followed by whoami and you'll see that you are indeed logged in as root. Also, if you do ps aux | grep root you'll see that you already have lots of processes on your system running as root. So, arguably, root is not disabled. – Mikael Auno Apr 19 '12 at 16:33
@MikaelAuno or sudo -E -s. By disabled I'm assuming that what was meant is that you can't directly login as root, but you can still run processes as root. – T0xicCode Apr 19 '12 at 20:07
$ indicates running commands at non-root. Those commands are unlikely to work outside of root. It’d be better to show # to indicate a root shell. – binki Oct 08 '18 at 15:26

How do you restart Apache?

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