diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 81a38ed3..353a873c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -232,8 +232,11 @@ For more information, see [doc/plugins.md](doc/plugins.md).
 By default, Finit monitors `/etc/finit.d/` and `/etc/finit.d/enabled/`
 registering any changes to `.conf` files.  To activate a change the user
 must call `initctl reload`, which reloads all modified files, stops any
-removed services, starts new ones, and restarts any modified ones, with
-SIGHUP if the process supports it.
+removed services, starts new ones, and restarts any modified ones.  If the
+command line arguments of a service have changed, the process will be
+terminated and then started again with the updated arguments. If the arguments
+have not been modified and the process supports SIGHUP, the process will
+receive a SIGHUP rather than being terminated and started.
 
 For some use-cases the extra step of calling `initctl reload` creates an
 unnecessary overhead, which can be removed at build-time using:
diff --git a/src/service.c b/src/service.c
index 3c164d66..56becedc 100644
--- a/src/service.c
+++ b/src/service.c
@@ -937,23 +937,29 @@ static void parse_name(svc_t *svc, char *arg)
  */
 static void parse_cmdline_args(svc_t *svc, char *cmd)
 {
+	int diff = 0;
 	char sep = 0;
 	char *arg;
 	int i = 0;
 
+	if (strcmp(svc->args[i], cmd))
+		diff++;
 	strlcpy(svc->args[i++], cmd, sizeof(svc->args[0]));
 
-	while (i < MAX_NUM_SVC_ARGS)
-		svc->args[i++][0] = 0;
-
 	/*
 	 * Copy supplied args. Stop at MAX_NUM_SVC_ARGS-1 to allow the args
 	 * array to be zero-terminated.
 	 */
 	for (i = 1; (arg = strtok(NULL, " ")) && i < (MAX_NUM_SVC_ARGS - 1);) {
+		char prev[sizeof(svc->args[0])];
 		char ch = arg[0];
 		size_t len;
 
+		if (!sep) {
+			strlcpy(prev, svc->args[i], sizeof(prev));
+			svc->args[i][0] = 0;
+		}
+
 		/* XXX: ugly string arg re-concatenation, fixme */
 		if (ch == '"' || ch == '\'')
 			sep = ch;
@@ -970,6 +976,9 @@ static void parse_cmdline_args(svc_t *svc, char *cmd)
 				continue;
 		}
 
+		if (strcmp(svc->args[i], prev))
+			diff++;
+
 		sep = 0;
 		i++;
 	}
@@ -978,8 +987,12 @@ static void parse_cmdline_args(svc_t *svc, char *cmd)
 	 * Clear remaining args in case they were set earlier.
 	 * This also zero-terminates the args array.
 	 */
-	while (i < MAX_NUM_SVC_ARGS)
-		svc->args[i++][0] = 0;
+	while (i < MAX_NUM_SVC_ARGS) {
+		if (svc->args[i++][0]) {
+			svc->args[i-1][0] = 0;
+			diff++;
+		}
+	}
 #if 0
 	for (i = 0; i < MAX_NUM_SVC_ARGS; i++) {
 		if (!svc->args[i][0])
@@ -987,6 +1000,10 @@ static void parse_cmdline_args(svc_t *svc, char *cmd)
 		_d("%s ", svc->args[i]);
 	}
 #endif
+
+	if (diff)
+		_d("Modified args for %s detected", cmd);
+	svc->args_dirty = (diff > 0);
 }
 
 
@@ -1500,7 +1517,9 @@ restart:
 
 		case COND_ON:
 			if (svc_is_changed(svc)) {
-				if (svc->sighup) {
+				if (svc_nohup(svc))
+					service_stop(svc);
+				else {
 					/*
 					 * wait until all processes have been
 					 * stopped before continuing...
@@ -1508,8 +1527,7 @@ restart:
 					if (sm_is_in_teardown(&sm))
 						break;
 					service_restart(svc);
-				} else
-					service_stop(svc);
+				}
 
 				svc_mark_clean(svc);
 			}
diff --git a/src/svc.c b/src/svc.c
index 352eb30f..fa63cfa7 100644
--- a/src/svc.c
+++ b/src/svc.c
@@ -498,6 +498,7 @@ void svc_mark_dirty(svc_t *svc)
 void svc_mark_clean(svc_t *svc)
 {
 	*((int *)&svc->dirty) = 0;
+	*((int *)&svc->args_dirty) = 0;
 }
 
 void svc_enable(svc_t *svc)
diff --git a/src/svc.h b/src/svc.h
index a54f9579..f20d5bec 100644
--- a/src/svc.h
+++ b/src/svc.h
@@ -142,6 +142,7 @@ typedef struct svc {
 	/* Command, arguments and service description */
 	char	       cmd[MAX_ARG_LEN];
 	char	       args[MAX_NUM_SVC_ARGS][MAX_ARG_LEN];
+	int            args_dirty;
 	char	       desc[MAX_STR_LEN];
 	char	       env[MAX_ARG_LEN];
 
@@ -194,7 +195,7 @@ static inline int svc_is_runtask   (svc_t *svc) { return svc && (SVC_TYPE_RUNTAS
 static inline int svc_is_forking   (svc_t *svc) { return (svc_is_daemon(svc) || svc_is_sysv(svc)) && svc->pidfile[0] == '!'; }
 
 static inline int svc_in_runlevel  (svc_t *svc, int runlevel) { return svc && ISSET(svc->runlevels, runlevel); }
-static inline int svc_has_sighup   (svc_t *svc) { return svc &&  0 != svc->sighup; }
+static inline int svc_nohup        (svc_t *svc) { return svc &&  (0 == svc->sighup || 0 != svc->args_dirty); }
 static inline int svc_has_pidfile  (svc_t *svc) { return svc_is_daemon(svc) && svc->pidfile[0] != 0 && svc->pidfile[0] != '!'; }
 
 static inline void svc_starting    (svc_t *svc) { if (svc) svc->starting = 1;       }