Peter van Boheemen wrote:
>
> At 17:30 26-03-01 +0200, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> >we changed the time out in httpd.conf:
> >
> ># Timeout: The number of seconds before receives and sends time out
> >
> >Timeout 1800
>
> I don't think that is the problem. It is not such a time out. The server
> responds almost immediately with the Internal Server error. It looks like
> an internal timeout within Apache that will not wait very long for MPE to
> spawn a cgi program

There is no such internal timeout for launching CGI processes.

When an Apache child process receives an HTTP request for a CGI, a fork() is
done to clone the Apache child, and then an exec() is done to replace the
cloned Apache child with the CGI process.  The fork()/exec() combination is
synchronous and happens directly.

IIRC, you were seeing "can't fork, resource busy" errors in the Apache
error_log.  I've seen fork() fail this way for two reasons:

1) The stdin/stdout/stderr file descriptors have been redirected to files whose
permissions prevent access by the newly created process.  In an Apache CGI
environment, stdin and stdout are redirected to POSIX pipes, so there should
never be any permissions issues there.  But stderr is redirected to the Apache
error_log, and if you have incorrect permissions set on the error_log, *ALL*
CGI requests will fail.  But you say this is an intermittent problem, so I
don't think any of this applies.

2) The more likely cause is a lack of sufficient contiguous transient disk
space.  The amount and quality of transient space can vary over time, and this
would explain the intermittent nature of your problem.  I recommend running
DISCFREE.PUB.SYS and seeing whether your disks are excessively fragmented.
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