Change apache to do graceful restarts

As of 1.33.7, DA can do this without needing to change your httpd boot script

Older manual way:

If you want to avoid download interruptions during apache restarts, apache has to be changed to restart gracefully. To do that, you'll need to change your httpd boot script. The path for your script will vary depending on your OS. For FreeBsd it's: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/httpd For all other OS's, it's: /etc/init.d/httpd

As for the actual change, you'll edit the httpd boot script for your system, find this code:

restart)
  stop
  waitforexit "httpd" 20
  start
  ;;

and change it to read:

restart)
  kill -USR1 `cat $PIDFILE`
  ;;

Note, this is not tested as much, so you'll need to keep an eye on things until you're satisfied that it's stable.

An apache restart will no longer start apache if it's stopped. You must “start” it, as the graceful restart only works on already running processes.