nginx dead but pid file exists

[nnttoo]

I had this problem a few times, "nginx dead but pid file exists"

My site suddenly can not access, after I typed "service nginx status" and
the answer is "nginx dead but pid file exists", what happened to my vps?

if possible, how to make the nginx reload / restart automatically if it
happens again.

Posted at Nginx Forum: http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,232050,232050#msg-232050