I am tired tired tired of dealing with "kill -9" and "killall -whatever httpd" bugs

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  <H1 ALIGN="CENTER">Apache Server Frequently Asked Questions</H1>

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  $Revision: 1.107 $ ($Date: 1998/02/14 13:06:25 $)

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   <LI><A HREF="#namevhost">I upgraded to Apache 1.3b and now my

    virtual hosts don't work!</A>

   </LI>

   <LI><A HREF="#redhat">I'm using RedHat Linux and I have problems with httpd

    dying randomly or not restarting properly</A>

   </LI>

   <li><a href="#stopping">I upgraded from an Apache version earlier

    than 1.2.0 and suddenly I have problems with Apache dying randomly

    or not restarting properly</a>

   </li>

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 <li><a name="redhat"><strong>I'm using RedHat Linux and I have problems with httpd

    dying randomly or not restarting properly</strong></a>

    <p>RedHat Linux versions 4.x (and possibly earlier) rpms contain

    various nasty scripts which do not stop or restart Apache properly.

    These can affect you even if you're not running the RedHat supplied

    rpms.

    <p> If you're using the default install then you're probably running

    Apache 1.1.3, which is outdated.  From RedHat's ftp site you can

    pick up a more recent RPM for Apache 1.2.x.  This will solve one of

    the problems.

    <p> If you're using a custom built Apache rather than the RedHat rpms

    then you should <code>rpm -e apache</code>.  In particular you want

    the mildly broken <code>/etc/logrotate.d/apache</code> script to be

    removed, and you want the broken <code>/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd</code>

    (or <code>httpd.init</code>) script to be removed.  The latter is

    actually fixed by the apache-1.2.5 rpms but if you're building your

    own Apache then you probably don't want the RedHat files.

    <p>We can't stress enough how important it is for folks, <i>especially

    vendors</i> to follow the <a href="../stopping.html">stopping Apache

    directions</a> given in our documentation.  In RedHat's defense,

    the broken scripts were necessary with Apache 1.1.x because the

    Linux support in 1.1.x was very poor, and there were various race

    conditions on all platforms.  None of this should be necessary with

    Apache 1.2 and later.

    </p>

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  </li>

  <li><a name="stopping"><strong>I upgraded from an Apache version earlier

    than 1.2.0 and suddenly I have problems with Apache dying randomly

    or not restarting properly</strong></a>

    <p>You should read <a href="#redhat">the previous note</a> about

    problems with RedHat installations.  It is entirely likely that your

    installation has start/stop/restart scripts which were built for

    an earlier version of Apache.  Versions earlier than 1.2.0 had

    various race conditions that made it necessary to use

    <code>kill -9</code> at times to take out all the httpd servers.

    But that should not be necessary any longer.  You should follow

    the <a href="../stopping.html">directions on how to stop

    and restart Apache</a>.

    <p>As of Apache 1.3 there is a script

    <code>src/support/apachectl</code> which, after a bit of

    customization, is suitable for starting, stopping, and restarting

    your server.

    </p>

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  </li>

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