Starting Apache Web Server at every Reboot (for Ubuntu / Debian Linux)

• Now, enter the code below in your text editor. Lines starting with a # symbol are comments (except the first line).

  #!/bin/sh
  case "$1" in
  start)
  echo "Starting Apache ..."
  # Change the location to your specific location
  /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start
  ;;
  stop)
  echo "Stopping Apache ..."
  # Change the location to your specific location
  /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl stop
  ;;
  graceful)
  echo "Restarting Apache gracefully..."
  # Change the location to your specific location
  /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl graceful
  ;;
  restart)
  echo "Restarting Apache ..."
  # Change the location to your specific location
  /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl restart
  ;;
  *)
  echo "Usage: '$0' {start|stop|restart|graceful}" > &2
  exit 64
  ;;
  esac
  exit 0
  

• Now, press "Ctrl–o" to save the file and "Ctrl–x" to exit from the editor.
• You have to change the file permissions by executing the command below:

  Ubuntu: sudo chmod u+x /etc/init.d/apache2

  Debian: chmod u+x /etc/init.d/apache2

• To start Apache, run command below:

  Ubuntu: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 start

  Debian: /etc/init.d/apache2 start

• To stop Apache, run command below:

  Ubuntu: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 stop

  Debian: /etc/init.d/apache2 stop

• To restart Apache, run command below:

  Ubuntu: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

  Debian: /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

• To restart Apache gracefully, run command below:

  Ubuntu: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 graceful

  Debian: /etc/init.d/apache2 graceful

• In order to add the script to the default runlevel you do the following.

  Ubuntu: sudo update–rc.d apache2 defaults

  Debian: update–rc.d apache2 defaults

• In case you want to remove it from the run level you do the following.

  Ubuntu: sudo update–rc.d –f apache2 remove

  Debian: update–rc.d –f apache2 remove

That's it you're done. Now, Apache will start automatically at boot time.

Please feel free to use the comments form below if you have any questions or need more explanation on anything.