I have a server running virtual hosts that change frequently. Instead of someone actually sending to the server and entering the apache restart command, I was thinking of creating a cron (every 1, 5 or 10 minutes, maybe only during working hours, when changes are actually made on the virtual hosts) to restart apache gracefully.
sudo apachectl graceful
I found an explanation here on stackoverflow that looks something like this:
Graceful does not wait for active connections before it makes a “full restart”. This is the same as HUP versus the master process. Apache supports child processes (processes) with active connections, while for each new connection new children with a new configuration appear (or beautifully cleared caches). When old connections die, these child processes also kill to make room for new ones.
Will this mean that the impact of the visitor (long wait time) will be negligible, or should I just use a manual apache reload?
Thank!
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