On Tue, 27 Mar 2001 06:06:53 -0800, Mark Bixby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Peter van Boheemen wrote:
>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.

Ok that's correct, this does not apply.

>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.

That could very well be the case. I don't think the disks are extremely
fragmented (Even though they have become fragmented over time. I remember
HP telling us we would never have to defragment discs in MPEiX :))
LDEV :     1 -- (MPEXL_SYSTEM_VOLUME_SET:MEMBER1)

LARGEST FREE AREA:       328160  TOTAL FREE SPACE:    1416000

     0 BLOCK(S) OF      1-     9 CONTIG. SECTORS =          0 FREE
SECTORS.  0%
   803 BLOCK(S) OF     10-    99 CONTIG. SECTORS =      32560 FREE
SECTORS.  2%
   593 BLOCK(S) OF    100-   999 CONTIG. SECTORS =     120256 FREE
SECTORS.  8%
   100 BLOCK(S) OF   1000-  9999 CONTIG. SECTORS =     391728 FREE SECTORS.
28%
    22 BLOCK(S) OF  10000- 99999 CONTIG. SECTORS =     543296 FREE SECTORS.
38%
     1 BLOCK(S) OF 100000-AND UP CONTIG. SECTORS =     328160 FREE SECTORS.
23%

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
LDEV :     2 -- (MPEXL_SYSTEM_VOLUME_SET:MEMBER2)

LARGEST FREE AREA:       147344  TOTAL FREE SPACE:    6057008

     0 BLOCK(S) OF      1-     9 CONTIG. SECTORS =          0 FREE
SECTORS.  0%
  3773 BLOCK(S) OF     10-    99 CONTIG. SECTORS =     144720 FREE
SECTORS.  2%
  4491 BLOCK(S) OF    100-   999 CONTIG. SECTORS =    1344112 FREE SECTORS.
22%
  1072 BLOCK(S) OF   1000-  9999 CONTIG. SECTORS =    2468240 FREE SECTORS.
41%
    94 BLOCK(S) OF  10000- 99999 CONTIG. SECTORS =    1952592 FREE SECTORS.
32%
     1 BLOCK(S) OF 100000-AND UP CONTIG. SECTORS =     147344 FREE
SECTORS.  2%

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
LDEV :     3 -- (MPEXL_SYSTEM_VOLUME_SET:MEMBER3)

LARGEST FREE AREA:        42000  TOTAL FREE SPACE:    5856720

     0 BLOCK(S) OF      1-     9 CONTIG. SECTORS =          0 FREE
SECTORS.  0%
  4217 BLOCK(S) OF     10-    99 CONTIG. SECTORS =     158336 FREE
SECTORS.  3%
  4332 BLOCK(S) OF    100-   999 CONTIG. SECTORS =    1239536 FREE SECTORS.
21%
  1353 BLOCK(S) OF   1000-  9999 CONTIG. SECTORS =    3357776 FREE SECTORS.
57%
    58 BLOCK(S) OF  10000- 99999 CONTIG. SECTORS =    1101072 FREE SECTORS.
19%
     0 BLOCK(S) OF 100000-AND UP CONTIG. SECTORS =          0 FREE
SECTORS.  0%

However, this would explain the fact that this happens when the system gets
busy. We plan to reduce the amount of memory the cgi program initially
allocates. I suppose that would help a lot as well, I suppose.

Peter