Apache Web Servers

Difference Between Apachectl and Httpd .Is apachectl -k start or httpd -k start  both the same .we have a pid file by the name httpd.pid but not apachectl.pid what is the difference .


pgrep httpd|head -5
6894
7971
8439
8946
9038
$ pgrep apache|head -5
$ pgrep apachectl|head -5
$ ps -ef|grep httpd|wc -l
58
$ ps -ef|grep apache|wc -l
71
$ ps -ef|grep apachectl|wc -l
1

$ ps -ef|grep apache|head -5

root      6894     1  0 23:13 ?        apache-2.2.22//bin/httpd -k start
root      6895  6894  0 23:13 ?        apache-2.2.22/logs/error.log_%Y%m%d 10M
root      6896  6894  0 23:13 ?        apache-2.2.22/logs/access.log_%Y%m%d 10M
root      6897  6894  0 23:13 ?        apache-2.2.22/logs/access.log_%Y%m%d 10M
root      6898  6894  0 23:13 ?        apache-2.2.22/logs/ssl_request.log_%Y%m%d 10M
daemon    6900     1  0 23:13 ?        00:00:00 LLAWP /apache-2.2.22/conf/WebAgent.conf -APACH
root      6906  6894  0 23:13 ?        apache-2.2.22/logs/mod_jk.log_%Y%m%d 10M
daemon    8946  6894  0 23:25 ?        /apache-2.2.22//bin/httpd -k start
daemon    9255  6894  0 23:27 ?    apache-2.2.22//bin/httpd -k start
daemon    9617  6894  0 23:29 ?        /apache-2.2.22//bin/httpd -k start


 ps -ef|grep httpd|head -5
root      6894     1  0 23:13 ?            apache-2.2.22//bin/httpd -k start
daemon    8439  6894  0 23:21 ?        /apache-2.2.22//bin/httpd -k start
daemon    8946  6894  0 23:25 ?        apache-2.2.22//bin/httpd -k start
daemon    9038  6894  0 23:26 ?        apache-2.2.22//bin/httpd -k start
daemon    9255  6894  0 23:27 ?        apache-2.2.22//bin/httpd -k start

daemon is user having in httpd.conf

getent passwd daemon
daemon:x:2:2:daemon:/sbin:/sbin/nologin

 cat httpd.conf|grep -i daemon
# httpd daemons, you will need to change at least LockFile and PidFile.
User daemon
Group daemon



can anyone explain clearly  the different outputs regarding the each command.