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HTTPD

Section: httpd (8)
Updated: 2012-02-10
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NAME

httpd - Apache Hypertext Transfer Protocol Server

SYNOPSIS

httpd [ -d serverroot ] [ -f config ] [ -C directive ] [ -c directive ] [ -D parameter ] [ -e level ] [ -E file ] [ -k start|restart|graceful|stop|graceful-stop ] [ -h ] [ -l ] [ -L ] [ -S ] [ -t ] [ -v ] [ -V ] [ -X ] [ -M ] [ -T ]

On Windows systems, the following additional arguments are available:

httpd [ -k install|config|uninstall ] [ -n name ] [ -w ]

SUMMARY

httpd is the Apache HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server program. It is designed to be run as a standalone daemon process. When used like this it will create a pool of child processes or threads to handle requests.

In general, httpd should not be invoked directly, but rather should be invoked via apachectl on Unix-based systems or as a service on Windows NT, 2000 and XP and as a console application on Windows 9x and ME.

OPTIONS

-d serverroot: Set the initial value for the ServerRoot directive to serverroot. This can be overridden by the ServerRoot directive in the configuration file. The default is /usr/local/apache2.
-f config: Uses the directives in the file config on startup. If config does not begin with a /, then it is taken to be a path relative to the ServerRoot. The default is conf/httpd.conf.
-k start|restart|graceful|stop|graceful-stop: Signals httpd to start, restart, or stop. See Stopping Apache httpd for more information.
-C directive: Process the configuration directive before reading config files.
-c directive: Process the configuration directive after reading config files.
-D parameter: Sets a configuration parameter which can be used with <IfDefine> sections in the configuration files to conditionally skip or process commands at server startup and restart. Also can be used to set certain less-common startup parameters including -DNO_DETACH (prevent the parent from forking) and -DFOREGROUND (prevent the parent from calling setsid() et al).
-e level: Sets the LogLevel to level during server startup. This is useful for temporarily increasing the verbosity of the error messages to find problems during startup.
-E file: Send error messages during server startup to file.
-h: Output a short summary of available command line options.
-l: Output a list of modules compiled into the server. This will not list dynamically loaded modules included using the LoadModule directive.
-L: Output a list of directives provided by static modules, together with expected arguments and places where the directive is valid. Directives provided by shared modules are not listed.
-M: Dump a list of loaded Static and Shared Modules.
-S: Show the settings as parsed from the config file (currently only shows the virtualhost settings).
-T (Available in 2.3.8 and later): Skip document root check at startup/restart.
-t: Run syntax tests for configuration files only. The program immediately exits after these syntax parsing tests with either a return code of 0 (Syntax OK) or return code not equal to 0 (Syntax Error). If -D DUMP_VHOSTS is also set, details of the virtual host configuration will be printed. If -D DUMP_MODULES is set, all loaded modules will be printed.
-v: Print the version of httpd, and then exit.
-V: Print the version and build parameters of httpd, and then exit.
-X: Run httpd in debug mode. Only one worker will be started and the server will not detach from the console.

The following arguments are available only on the Windows platform:

-k install|config|uninstall: Install Apache httpd as a Windows NT service; change startup options for the Apache httpd service; and uninstall the Apache httpd service.
-n name: The name of the Apache httpd service to signal.
-w: Keep the console window open on error so that the error message can be read.