Those with logins to larousse can if need be restart Apache with these handy dandy aliases:
apache-start apache-stop apache-restart apache-graceful
A 'graceful' restart reloads the configuration file and kills off all server threads once they've finished the current request; new requests are served by new threads with the new configuration. Every once in a while it may not be enough; for instance, changes to the PHP configuration don't seem to get reloaded by this, or the httpd process may be in a zombie-like undead state where it just doesn't respond.
A regular restart (or stop followed by start) will interrupt any connections currently trying to transfer data, but may be more thorough about reloading things.
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
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