My two penneths worth would be that the location of the welcome text should be in the configuration file but the text itself be in a separate file. When the server starts, it knows where to grab the text from and does so as required. Assuming, for a minute, that the welcome text is loaded from disk as required, the server need not be manipulated in any way to change the text, only the file contents need changing. The alternative would be a quick HUP.