> Brandon Fosdick wrote: > >> Would it be possible to use something like fam (or kqueue on FreeBSD) >> and >> have httpd notified whenever the config file changes? That would solve >> part of the above desire without requiring the extensive changes needed >> to >> go to a db/ldap system. > > That could be external to httpd. Just have a monitor (or in cfengine, > or whatever) that when the config changes it issues a graceful restart. > Simple and straight-forward.
Certainly true, and I've even thought about doing just that. But it seems like a relatively simple change and it would make less work for the user/admin. And, to me at least, it seems Intuitively Correct that an app should be watching it's own config files for changes and then responding appropriately. I see this as being in the same vein as re-reading config files in response to a kill -HUP. Instead of (or in addition to) responding to a HUP signal, the app is responding to a file change event. Now that I think about it, watching for file events might help with log rotation too, since a signal wouldn't have to be sent when the files are changed.
