Synopsis

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

On Windows systems, the following additional arguments are available:

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

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 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.

-R directory

When the server is compiled using the SHARED_CORE rule, this specifies the directory for the shared object files.

-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 together with expected arguments and places where the directive is valid.

-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

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 as a Windows NT service; change startup options for the Apache service; and uninstall the Apache service.

-n name

The name of the Apache service to signal.

-w

Keep the console window open on error so that the error message can be read.