Restart apache forcing it

Question

I have a Centos server running Apache and sometimes the server is working fine but I need to restart it due to changes in Apache configuration files. I usually execute:

systemctl restart httpd.service

But sometimes this command hangs for 4 or 5 minutes! It takes very long to stop apache. I know the problem is stopping and not starting cause if I execute systemctl stop httpd.service it also takes 4 or 5 minutes.

Is there anyway to force apache to restart without waiting so long?

Answer 1

I found that reload option is better than restart httpd service. systemctl restart httpd