PHP 4.0 Bug #9040: Exec sets return_val to -1 when compiled with "--enable-sigchild"

From: jase@sensis.com Operating system: Linux 2.2.17 PHP version: 4.0.3pl1 PHP Bug Type: Program Execution Bug description: Exec sets return_val to -1 when compiled with "--enable-sigchild" I was encouraged to submit this as a bug report... I acutally compiled the source from Debian's archive, with the latest security fix (which I think it found in 4.0.4pl1). I was having trouble with oracle support, so I configured with "--enable-sigchild". That did not help my problem. I finally went back to my older oracle libraries, and was able to get them to work, but left "--enable-sigchild" configured in. Then I noticed that all of my exec functions were setting return_val (the third parameter) to -1, indicating an error. I can include an strace of the problem if needed. I think that the problem was that there were 2 wait4 system calls, one after another. The second one would return a -1. But, I'm not sure, and I'm not much of a programmer. Here is the strace after the exec process has finished exiting. [pid 25359] _exit(0) = ? <... read resumed> "", 4096) = 0 --- SIGCHLD (Child exited) --- wait4(-1, NULL, WNOHANG, NULL) = 25359 wait4(-1, NULL, WNOHANG, NULL) = -1 ECHILD (No child processes) Hope this helps someone. Let me know if you need any more info. Jase -- Edit Bug report at: http://bugs.php.net/?id=9040&edit=1