`systemctl kill` leverages systemd's knowledge of the daemon's main PID, eliminating the need to rely on PID files or external tools like `killall` or `pkill`. This ensures precise signal sending to the intended process, reducing the risk of errors in process identification. Additionally, using `systemctl kill` logs the signal sending in the service's journal, providing a record of actions taken. Requires selinux-policy-41.43 or higher (see https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2369644), available as an update for F41, F42, and Rawhide.

https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-eb98eb9e24 (F41 -- will go to stable in a few days)
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-f9f097f491 (F42 -- stable)
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-3db4c0ec1c (Rawhide)

The logrotate configuration snippet:

# cat /etc/logrotate.d/lighttpd

# Warning: Using logrotate together with `max-workers` Lighty option is
# a pretty complicated thing:
# https://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/1/wiki/Docs_ModAccesslog
# If you use max-workers, you probably want cronolog, which in turn means
# you shouldn't be using logrotate at all.

/var/log/lighttpd/*log {
    missingok
    notifempty
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        /usr/bin/killall -HUP lighttpd &>/dev/null || :
    endscript
}

In the postrotate script, killall can be replaced by:

/usr/bin/systemctl kill --signal=HUP --kill-whom=main lighttpd.service 2>/dev/null || true

Because:

# systemctl show -P MainPID lighttpd.service
1046
# pgrep lighttpd
1046

Reproducible: Always




Additional Information:
lighttpd-1.4.79-1.fc42.x86_64