Bug #14333: Apache processes consume all CPU

From: tauren@servlets.net Operating system: RH 6.2 SMP PHP version: 4.0.6 PHP Bug Type: Apache related Bug description: Apache processes consume all CPU I've been experiencing the exact same problem that is described in bug #14290 and #8446 for quite some time now but did not know which Apache module was causing it. Up until now, I've had a cron job that simply kills off (with a -9) any httpd processes that are using 99% or more cpu time. Today I've been trying to track down what exactly is causing the problem. I've eliminated all extra Apache modules and did not experience the problem. When I added PHP back in, the problem started immediately. Within one minute of starting Apache back up, the high-CPU processes started appearing again. The Apache "server-status" didn't indicate that ANY php script had been hit. The processes just start going out of control after some time. In fact, there isn't even a single *.php* file on the server. I really don't think this is happening because of a PHP script being run. I'm currently testing this out on a Red Hat 6.2 Linux (SMP) box with dual CPUs. From the sound of things in the other bug reports (#14290 and #8446), the problem only seems to be happening on SMP servers. I did not compile with any extra PHP modules except for the core PHP 4.0.6. I haven't really done a lot with PHP, so I'm not sure how to help debug this problem. But I do want a stable Apache environment with PHP support for my hosting customers. If there is anything I can do to help debug things, please let me know. I've read the page on using gdb, but I'm think this is a different kind of situation. Apache isn't crashing, but certain processes are going "out-of-control". Is there a way to get a backtrace of a particular process while it is still running? Until this problem can be resolved, I'm going to have to remove PHP from my servers. I really don't want to have to do this, but the instabilities are becoming too much to handle and very hard to explain to our customers. Please let me know what I can do to help debug and solve this problem. Thanks! Tauren -- Edit bug report at: http://bugs.php.net/?id=14333&edit=1