There’s a slight issue with the init.d script for lighttpd on debian. If you try to reload or start the application, it doesn’t properly detach itself from the process. I discovered this when I stopped getting my web stats update email from logrotate. The reason was logrotate was never finishing because lighttpd was holding onto it.
Anyway, here’s the diff for /etc/init.d/lighttpd that fixes the problem.
tbeck@whalespine:/tmp$ diff lighttpd /etc/init.d/lighttpd
30c30
< if ! start-stop-daemon --start --quiet \ --- > if ! start-stop-daemon –start –quiet –background\
51c51
< if start-stop-daemon --start --quiet \ --- > if start-stop-daemon –start –quiet –background \
30c30
< if ! start-stop-daemon --start --quiet \ --- > if ! start-stop-daemon –start –quiet –background\
51c51
< if start-stop-daemon --start --quiet \ --- > if start-stop-daemon –start –quiet –background \