SystemD (systemctl) script for managing Apache httpd compiled from source

httpd.service

[Unit]
Description=The Apache HTTP Server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl -k start
ExecReload=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl -k graceful
ExecStop=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl -k graceful-stop
PIDFile=/usr/local/apache2/logs/httpd.pid
PrivateTmp=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

If you look at the apachectl script it calls systemctl start httpd.service so you have infinite recursion here. Your service calls apachectl which starts the httpd service.

If you look at the apachectl script it calls systemctl start httpd.service so you have infinite recursion here. Your service calls apachectl which starts the httpd service.

Thanks for the comment! This gist was made 4 years ago, it might have changed how apachectl works since then:) I just had a quick look onto the apachectl source code in the repo https://github.com/apache/httpd/blob/trunk/support/apachectl.in and it looks like that the script does not call systemctl directly but uses httpd binary instead. Didn't compile it though so the output might be different.

Since 2.4.42, httpd has native support for systemd. Compile mod_systemd with the flag:

$ ./configure --enable-systemd

The docs provide the following unit file:

# Example of systemd service unit (more settings are probably needed for production systems)

[Unit]
Description=The Apache HTTP Server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=notify
ExecStart=/usr/local/apache2/bin/httpd -D FOREGROUND -k start
ExecReload=/usr/local/apache2/bin/httpd -k graceful
KillMode=mixed

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

See the note there on ExecStop.