To restart the service completely, type:

~]# service httpd restart
Stopping httpd:                                            [  OK  ]
Starting httpd:                                            [  OK  ]

This will stop the running httpd service, and then start it again. Use this command after installing or removing a dynamically loaded module such as PHP.

To only reload the configuration, type:

~]# service httpd reload

This will cause the running httpd service to reload the configuration file. Note that any requests being currently processed will be interrupted, which may cause a client browser to display an error message or render a partial page.

To reload the configuration without affecting active requests, type:

~]# service httpd graceful

This will cause the running httpd service to reload the configuration file. Note that any requests being currently processed will use the old configuration.