Re: zombie httpd (apache doesn't like me reading it's logs)

[bob_(_at_)_lostgeneration_(_dot_)_freeserve_(_dot_)_co_(_dot_)_uk]

On Fri, 21 Dec 2001 09:14:44 -0800
Chuck Yerkes <chuck+obsd_(_at_)_snew_(_dot_)_com> wrote:

> Tail -f does a read only open on the file.  Then it sleeps.
> Periodically, it wakes and checks the length of the file and
> spews out the rest of the file.
> 
> It does no locks, it should interfere in now way.
> 
> However, you now have a repeatable problem.  Time to put on
> your System Admin hat and do some debugging.  Run httpd with
> tracing on and do this.  See what's happening with the apache
> daemon.
> 
> As others have said, I've not seen this behaviour on any
> BSD (Net, Free, Open) nor elsewhere.

When I knew I would be serving web from this machine I moved /var from /
onto a seperate partition (this was 1 week post-install). I did this from
a shell booted from the install disk (using `cp -Rp`).

I have changed httpd.conf to pipe into rotatelogs instead of letting httpd
write directly. I can now tail the logs without problems. This is a much
neater solution although it just sidesteps the problem.

I'm going to do a bit more homework on this.

Thankyou for your reply.

A. Basterfield