Apache2 restart does't implement PHP changes, server reboot does though

Question

on my Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS server with Apache/2.4.41 I needed to change

post_max_size

and

upload_max_filesize

for my new PHP 8.3.4 installation

I added phpinfo(); in a file called phpinfo.php

I got the Loaded Configuration File location /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini

I edited the file to change the values and saved the file.
I greped the file for the new values and confirmed the new values were found

I restarted apache with

systemctl restart apache2

I checked the status of the service using

systemctl status apache2

and confirmed the service uptime was indicating the service was recently restarted and there were no errors.

I refreshed the phpinfo page and the values hadn't updated and uploads to the system still failed with a "file too large error"

I rebooted the whole server, not just the apache service, and refreshed the phpinfo page and the values had updated.

I made another change to the php.ini file and restarted the apache service and, again, the changes were not picked up by apache. Again a full server reboot fixed it. So I know it isn't a one off issue fixed by the reboot.

Previously I've been able to get away with just restarting the apache service.

There are no errors that look relevant in /var/log/apache2/error.log

Has something changed or is there something wrong with my server?

Any hints as to where to look to try to find the cause for this much appreciated.

Thanks in anticipation

Answer 1

systemctl restart php8.3-fpm.service worked fine for me.