[users@httpd] Defunct CGI processes

[Marple Huckleby <ma...@gmail.com>]

 I have a number of front-end web servers, which mount their DocumentRoot
directory from an NFS server. Several versions ago, I began seeing defunct
Perl processes (not mod_perl). I waited and upgraded with each new release,
but the problem has not gone away.

These servers run a relatively ancient version of Linux, so I decided to try
something a bit more modern in hopes that it would fix the problem, so I
tried Fedora Core 4, compiling and installing Apache by hand. The problem
actually became much, MUCH worse - the # of defunct processes built up
steadily and quickly, and after approximately an hour, the NFS server
crashed. The NFS server (running Fedora Core 2) had been running without
incident (or reboot) for quite some time, about a year if I recall
correctly.

If anyone could point me in the right direction for resolving this issue, I
would be very grateful. The configure options used are:

--prefix=/etc/httpd --enable-module=usertrack --enable-module=expires
--enable-suexec --suexec-caller=www --suexec-docroot=/webdata
--suexec-userdir=/webdata --enable-module=rewrite

M. Huck