Apache Question:

Gracefully restarts the Apache httpd daemon. If the
daemon is not running, it is started. This differs from a
normal restart in that currently open connections are
not aborted. A side effect is that old log files will not
be closed immediately. This means that if used in a log
rotation script, a substantial delay may be necessary to
ensure that the old log files are closed before
processing them. This command automatically checks
the configuration files as in configtest before
initiating the restart to make sure Apache doesn?t die.
This is equivalent to apachectl -k graceful.

( excerpt from manual page of apachectl )

Actually it sends a SIGUSR1 for a restart. The USR1 or
graceful signal causes the parent process to advise the
children to exit after their current request (or to exit
immediately if they're not serving anything). The parent
re-reads its configuration files and re-opens its log files.
As each child dies off the parent replaces it with a child
from the new generation of the configuration, which begins
serving new requests immediately.