How to terminate a process(httpd) when its PID keeps on changing in CENTOS 7

Question

When I tried to restart my httpd service using systemctl restart httpd

Checking the status, I found that process is dead and another process is running. so I removed it using yum erase httpd

As a precaution, I checked if the process is still running using ps aux | grep httpd# and found it was but this time the PID was different. and after subsequent queries, the PID kept on changing. If I try to kill using any PID, it would say NO Such Process

Check the screenshot:

Hence the question. How do I stop this process so that I can install the service from scratch and configure it?

Solution 1

You have to understand that when you grep httpd you'll not just get back any apache processes but the grep process as well. You're seeing your own command reflected back at you.

# ps ax | grep httpd
1818 ? Ss 0:53 /usr/sbin/httpd
38729 ? S 4:38 /usr/sbin/httpd
38730 ? S 4:49 /usr/sbin/httpd
54915 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep httpd

Solution 2

Try:

find / -name "httpd.pid"
Then delete the pid file, if it exists.

Also, just in case:

systemctl stop httpd
systemctl disable httpd

Machavity is right too, whenever you grep from the output of ps you're going to see your grep command too. It's something you'll get used to.

Comments

[Andrés Sánchez García]

This PID isn't http process. This PID is grep proccess. Try "systemctl status httpd" for check httpd status. But if you erase httpd package, you haven't any process of httpd

[Anup Sharma]

Exactly my question. When i have already erased the httpd package, how am I getting httpd (pid 22595) already running .

[faker]

You also grep for httpd# including the #. Remove the # to actually properly match for httpd.

[Anup Sharma]

Unserstood. But still if I try systemctl status httpd , I get the same error as httpd (pid 22595) already running and Failed to start The Apache HTTP Server.

[Machavity]

Try this instead service httpd status

[Anup Sharma]

Same Error. Also when I try to kill 22595, it says NO such process

[Machavity]

My best guess then is that the httpd.pid file still exists and the system is returning that. Since your grep is empty you might want to make sure that file was deleted

[Machavity]

Mine lives at /var/run/httpd/httpd.pid

[Anup Sharma]

Hmmm, no such folder as httpd in run. So could it be any other error?

[Machavity]

Beyond rebooting I don't have any other suggestions

[Anup Sharma]

Tried that but didn't work. @Machavity 's suggestion of restart worked.