httpd/httpd.service.xml

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<refentry>
  <refentryinfo>
    <title>httpd systemd units</title>
    <productname>httpd</productname>
    <author><contrib>Author</contrib><surname>Orton</surname><firstname>Joe</firstname><email>jorton@redhat.com</email></author>
  </refentryinfo>

  <refmeta>
    <refentrytitle>httpd.service</refentrytitle>
    <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
  </refmeta>
  
  <refnamediv>
    <refname>httpd.service</refname>
    <refname>httpd.socket</refname>
    <refpurpose>httpd unit files for systemd</refpurpose>
  </refnamediv>

  <refsynopsisdiv>
    <para>
      <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service</filename>, 
      <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.socket</filename>
    </para>
  </refsynopsisdiv>
  
  <refsect1>
    <title>Description</title>

    <para>This manual page describes the <command>systemd</command>
    unit files used to integrate the <command>httpd</command> daemon
    with <command>systemd</command>. Two unit files are available:
    <command>httpd.service</command> allows the
    <command>httpd</command> daemon to be run as a system service, and
    <command>httpd.socket</command> allows httpd to be started via
    socket-based activation. Most systems will use
    <command>httpd.service</command>.</para>

    <para>The <command>apachectl</command> command has been modified
    to invoke <command>systemctl</command> for most uses, so for
    example, running <command>apachectl start</command> is equivalent
    to running <command>systemctl start httpd.service</command>.  This
    ensures that the running httpd daemon is tracked and managed by
    <command>systemd</command>.  In contrast, running
    <command>httpd</command> directly from a root shell will start the
    service outside of <command>systemd</command>; in this case,
    default security restrictions described below (including, but not
    limited to, SELinux) will not be enforced.</para>

    <refsect2>
      <title>Changing default behaviour</title>

      <para>To change the default behaviour of the httpd service, an
      <emphasis>over-ride</emphasis> file should be created, rather
      than changing
      <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service</filename>
      directly, since such changes would be lost over package
      upgrades. Running <command>systemctl edit
      httpd.service</command> or <command>systemctl edit
      httpd.socket</command> as root will create a drop-in file in
      <filename>/etc/systemd/system/httpd.service.d</filename> which
      over-rides the system defaults.</para>

      <para>For example, to set the <option>LD_LIBRARY_PATH</option>
      environment variable for the daemon, run <command>systemctl edit
      httpd.service</command> and enter:

      <programlisting>[Service]
Environment=LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/vendor/lib</programlisting></para>
    </refsect2>
    
    <refsect2>
      <title>Starting the service at boot time</title>

      <para>The httpd.service and httpd.socket units are
      <emphasis>disabled</emphasis> by default. To start the httpd
      service at boot time, run: <command>systemctl enable
      httpd.service</command>. In the default configuration, the
      httpd daemon will accept connections on port 80 (and, if mod_ssl
      is installed, TLS connections on port 443) for any configured
      IPv4 or IPv6 address.</para>

      <para>If httpd is configured to depend on any specific IP
      address (for example, with a "Listen" directive) which may only
      become available during startup, or if httpd depends on other
      services (such as a database daemon), the service
      <emphasis>must</emphasis> be configured to ensure correct
      startup ordering.</para>

      <para>For example, to ensure httpd is only running after all
      configured network interfaces are configured, create a drop-in
      file (as described above) with the following section:

      <programlisting>[Unit]
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target</programlisting>

      See <ulink
      url="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/NetworkTarget/"/>
      for more information on startup ordering with systemd.</para>

    </refsect2>

    <refsect2>
      <title>Reloading and stopping the service</title>

      <para>When running <command>systemctl reload
      httpd.service</command>, a <emphasis>graceful</emphasis>
      restart is used, which sends a signal to the httpd parent
      process to reload the configuration and re-open log files. Any
      children with open connections at the time of reload will
      terminate only once they have completed serving requests. This
      prevents users of the server seeing errors (or potentially
      losing data) due to the reload, but means some there is some
      delay before any configuration changes take effect for all
      users.</para>

      <para>Similarly, a <emphasis>graceful stop</emphasis> is used
      when <command>systemctl stop httpd.service</command> is run,
      which terminates the server only once active connections have
      been processed.</para>

      <para>To "ungracefully" stop the server without waiting for
      requests to complete, use <command>systemctl kill
      --kill-who=main httpd</command>; similarly to "ungracefully"
      reload the configuration, use <command>systemctl kill
      --kill-who=main --signal=HUP httpd</command>.</para>
    </refsect2>

    <refsect2>
      <title>systemd integration and mod_systemd</title>

      <para>The httpd service uses the <option>notify</option> systemd
      service type. The <literal>mod_systemd</literal> module must be
      loaded (as in the default configuration) for this to work
      correctly - the service will fail if this module is not
      loaded. <literal>mod_systemd</literal> also makes worker and
      request statistics available when running <command>systemctl status
      httpd</command>. See
      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
      for more information on systemd service types.</para>
    </refsect2>
    
    <refsect2>
      <title>Security and SELinux</title>

      <para>The default SELinux policy restricts the httpd service in
      various ways. For example, the default policy limits the ports
      to which httpd can bind (using the <literal>Listen</literal>
      directive), which parts of the filesystem can be accessed, and
      whether outgoing TCP connections are possible. Many of these
      restrictions can be adjusted using <command>semanage</command>
      to change booleans or other types. See
      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>httpd_selinux</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
      for more information.</para>

      <para>The httpd service enables <emphasis>PrivateTmp</emphasis>
      by default. The <filename>/tmp</filename> and
      <filename>/var/tmp</filename> directories available within the
      httpd process (and CGI scripts, etc) are not shared by other
      processes. See
      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
      for more information.</para>

    </refsect2>

  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Files</title>

    <para><filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service</filename>,
    <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.socket</filename>,
    <filename>/etc/systemd/systemd/httpd.service.d</filename></para>
  </refsect1>
  
  <refsect1>
    <title>See also</title>

    <para>
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>httpd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, 
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, 
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, 
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>httpd_selinux</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>semanage</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    </para>
  </refsect1>

</refentry>