What criteria is used to determine if the web.config has changed and needs to be reloaded?

Question

What actions trigger the reloading of the web.config setting?

What does "changed" mean in this context? Does it just compare the modified dates? Do a binary compare? Something else?

Would just opening and closing web.config cause it to be reloaded?

Answer 1

Anytime the web.config's date modified is changed the application will restart. An easy way to do this without modifying the file is to TOUCH the web.config:

touch -c -s c:\inetpub\wwwroot\webapp\web.config

Answer 2

Any changes to the file can cause an application restart.

Answer 3

IIS watches the web.config for modifications. This means, for all intents and purposes, anything that updates the modified date. Just 'opening and closing' it won't do, because that just counts as a read.