/etc/init.d/openvpn init script adds --writepid to create a pid file for the process. openvpn drops root privileges after forking to the background. When openvpn receives the HUP signal, it disconnects and rereads the configuration files. Because openvpn doesn't have root privileges anymore, it exits with an error message: Options error: --writepid fails with '/var/run/openvpn.pid': Permission denied A chown command after the start-stop-daemon execution would solve this problem. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install OpenVPN as a daemon (server) 2. killall -HUP openvpn Actual Results: OpenVPN cannot write the pid file, so it exits with an error message. Expected Results: The openvpn pid file should be owned by the user which runs the openvpn process, so the process can write to the file.
