[users@httpd] httpd.conf maximum length / content

[Ron Scruggs <rs...@hotmail.com>]

Hello, all

We are running Apache 2.2.24 on AIX 7.1 with the following compile/build options:

Server version: Apache/2.2.24 (Unix)
Server built:   Mar 12 2013 09:46:50
Server's Module Magic Number: 20051115:31
Server loaded:  APR 1.4.6, APR-Util 1.4.1
Compiled using: APR 1.4.6, APR-Util 1.4.1
Architecture:   64-bit
Server MPM:     Prefork
  threaded:     no
    forked:     yes (variable process count)
Server compiled with....
 -D APACHE_MPM_DIR="server/mpm/prefork"
 -D APR_HAS_MMAP
 -D APR_HAVE_IPV6 (IPv4-mapped addresses enabled)
 -D APR_USE_SYSVSEM_SERIALIZE
 -D APR_USE_PTHREAD_SERIALIZE
 -D SINGLE_LISTEN_UNSERIALIZED_ACCEPT
 -D APR_HAS_OTHER_CHILD
 -D AP_HAVE_RELIABLE_PIPED_LOGS
 -D DYNAMIC_MODULE_LIMIT=128
 -D HTTPD_ROOT="/opt/apache"
 -D SUEXEC_BIN="/opt/apache/bin/suexec"
 -D DEFAULT_PIDLOG="logs/httpd.pid"
 -D DEFAULT_SCOREBOARD="logs/apache_runtime_status"
 -D DEFAULT_LOCKFILE="logs/accept.lock"
 -D DEFAULT_ERRORLOG="logs/error_log"
 -D AP_TYPES_CONFIG_FILE="conf/mime.types"
 -D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="conf/httpd.conf"


We are running a large hosted environment with a total of 430 websites that we are incorporating as named virtual hosts in the apache config file.  Each site has a varying amount of content in their config file and may or may not have includes.  We have found that at around 260-270 sites, apache will no longer start - it runs through the syntax check and then dies.  We found that running the apachectl -t would cause a memory fault core dump until we removed the ulimits for stack, rss and data for the root and apache user ID, but this did not fix the silent death when doing an apachectl -k start.  

My question is this:  is there a documented maximum size to the httpd.conf file or maximum number of config directives that apache can handle?  Is this configurable during the build process?  

Thank you,

Ron