general/2675: 'kill -O' warnings in apachectl

[Maurizio Munafo' <mu...@hp0tlc.polito.it>]

>Number:         2675
>Category:       general
>Synopsis:       'kill -O' warnings in apachectl
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    apache
>State:          open
>Class:          mistaken
>Submitter-Id:   apache
>Arrival-Date:   Thu Jul 23 04:50:01 PDT 1998
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     munafo@hp0tlc.polito.it
>Organization:
apache
>Release:        1.3.1
>Environment:
HP-UX hp0tlc A.09.05 A 9000/715 2011522857 two-user license
>Description:
The apachectl script provided with Apache 1.3.1 uses the 'kill -0' method to 
test if the httpd process is active.

This fact, at least on my HPUX 9.05 system, produces at least two problems:
1) 'apachectl start', run as root, produces a 
 'kill: xxxxx: no such process'
 because it always try to signal the process indicated by the PID file, even if
 the httpd daemon was stopped and the value of the PID file is invalid
2) if 'apachectl' is run by a normal user, a 
 'kill: xxxxx: permission denied'
 message is issued, because the httpd process is not owned by the user and 
 cannot be signaled to check for existence.

In any case, the message is actually just a warning, because the script 
work finely even if the process cannot be signaled.
>How-To-Repeat:

>Fix:
Either the old method using 'ps' should be used, or the 
'kill -0 $PID' command should be wrapped in a variable to check for possible
error or messages during the command execution.
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:
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