mod_cgi/1920: CGIs don't run: Error_log says "Couldn't spawn new child process"

["Falk W.Mueller" <fw...@fwm.net>]

>Number:         1920
>Category:       mod_cgi
>Synopsis:       CGIs don't run: Error_log says "Couldn't spawn new child process"
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       critical
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    apache
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   apache
>Arrival-Date:   Sat Mar  7 00:10:01 PST 1998
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     fwmone@fwm.net
>Organization:
apache
>Release:        1.3b3 and 1.2.5
>Environment:
Linux alpha 2.0.33 #3 i586. Compiler: gcc
>Description:
If I start a cgi-script on my server, it only returns "500 Internal Server Error". A view into the error_log of 1.3b3 says following: [error](24)Too many open files: couldn't spawn child process: /home/cgi-bin/hidecounter.pl. 1.2.5 says the same.

I don't know what to do, all scripts ran before on the same server! User wwwrun has access to the files, I've increased the filedescriptors to 8196 (!).

Please help me!
>How-To-Repeat:
http://fwm-counter.com/cgi-bin/hidecounter.pl
http://fwm-counter.com/cgi-bin/showlog.pl
>Fix:
??%3
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:
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