#14997 [Opn->Bgs]: Multiple system calls cause inifinite process forking

ID: 14997 Updated by: iliaa@php.net Reported By: marcus@names.co.uk -Status: Open +Status: Bogus Bug Type: Program Execution Operating System: Linux PHP Version: 4.1.1 New Comment: Thank you for taking the time to report a problem with PHP. Unfortunately you are not using a current version of PHP -- the problem might already be fixed. Please download a new PHP version from http://www.php.net/downloads.php If you are able to reproduce the bug with one of the latest versions of PHP, please change the PHP version on this bug report to the version you tested and change the status back to "Open". Again, thank you for your continued support of PHP. I've tried your code in PHP 4.3.0-dev and it seems to work fine. Without any 'left over' or zombie process' Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-01-18 10:55:10] marcus@names.co.uk Does anyone have any thoughts on this? If not, I'm going to have to go back to Perl, which I haven't used for years! Marcus ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-01-14 06:28:24] marcus@names.co.uk There are zombie processes, but there are also many valid processes. Do you know a fix? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-01-11 10:48:15] hholzgra@php.net are you talking about 'defunct' (aka zombie) processes? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-01-11 10:42:50] marcus@names.co.uk If PHP is running via a web server, and mutiple system calls are made within the script to another script, hundreds of processes are created. Here is an example: Script 1: <?php for ($i=1; $i<=5; $i++) { system("php script2.php"); } ?> Script 2: <?php exit; ?> The effect is the same (and more difficult to stop) when the system calls are made in the background. e.g. system("php script2.php >>/dev/null 2>>/dev/null &"); I have even tried calling a shell script, which in turn calls the second PHP script (both in the background), but it still causes lots of processes. The "exec" command is also affected. At first, I thought this was a problem with either Zeus web server of Fast CGI, but I have since tried it with Apache and normal CGI with the same effect. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=14997&edit=1