[php-maint] Bug#617233: libapache2-mod-php5: Intermittent failure as described in http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=50027

[System Administrator]

Package: libapache2-mod-php5
Version: 5.3.3-7
Severity: important


Getting intermittent Fatal Error; seems to be the problem reported here http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=50027
in that the problem is intermittent, and also causes other php applications to produce fatal errors. Therefore,
seems to be an internal php/apache problem causing cross infection of separate processes.

We were on php 5.2 on Ubuntu 8.04. Upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04 and php 5.3.2 and immediately hit this problem.

Decided to switch to Debian 6 as it supports 5.3.3 which fixes a number of bugs in 5.3.2, but still getting
this problem although it now only occurs after 1-2 days.

The error always occurs at the same point in the code, but after refreshing a few times, the problem goes away.

Inserted debug logging to file to track where the error is occurring and isolated the problem to the following
statement:-

$this->paths=array_merge($this->paths,$path);		

The log showed the array $this->paths to be empty both before and after this statement, and the array $path
to contain data. Changed the statement to be:-

if (empty($this->paths)) {
  $this->paths=$path;
} else {
  $this->paths=array_merge($this->paths,$path);
}

The statement still failed to set $this->paths. So in a final attempt at a work around, we changed the code
to:-

if (empty($this->paths)) {
  foreach($path as $key=>$value) {
     $this->paths[$key]=$value;
  }
} else {
  $this->paths=array_merge($this->paths,$path);
}

This seemed to work, except that the problem now occurs in a different piece of code. Again, after inserting
and checking debugging, it appears that the affected php statement does not complete, does not return the expected data
so causing a fatal error in subsequent code.



-- System Information:
Debian Release: 6.0
  APT prefers proposed-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'proposed-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages libapache2-mod-php5 depends on:
ii  apache2-mpm-prefork     2.2.16-6         Apache HTTP Server - traditional n
ii  apache2.2-common        2.2.16-6         Apache HTTP Server common files
ii  libbz2-1.0              1.0.5-6          high-quality block-sorting file co
ii  libc6                   2.11.2-10        Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libcomerr2              1.41.12-2        common error description library
ii  libdb4.8                4.8.30-2         Berkeley v4.8 Database Libraries [
ii  libgssapi-krb5-2        1.8.3+dfsg-4     MIT Kerberos runtime libraries - k
ii  libk5crypto3            1.8.3+dfsg-4     MIT Kerberos runtime libraries - C
ii  libkrb5-3               1.8.3+dfsg-4     MIT Kerberos runtime libraries
ii  libmagic1               5.04-5           File type determination library us
ii  libonig2                5.9.1-1          Oniguruma regular expressions libr
ii  libpcre3                8.02-1.1         Perl 5 Compatible Regular Expressi
ii  libqdbm14               1.8.77-4         QDBM Database Libraries [runtime]
ii  libssl0.9.8             0.9.8o-4squeeze1 SSL shared libraries
ii  libxml2                 2.7.8.dfsg-2     GNOME XML library
ii  mime-support            3.48-1           MIME files 'mime.types' & 'mailcap
ii  php5-common             5.3.3-7          Common files for packages built fr
ii  tzdata                  2010o-1          time zone and daylight-saving time
ii  ucf                     3.0025+nmu1      Update Configuration File: preserv
ii  zlib1g                  1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3 compression library - runtime

Versions of packages libapache2-mod-php5 recommends:
ii  php5-cli                      5.3.3-7    command-line interpreter for the p

Versions of packages libapache2-mod-php5 suggests:
pn  php-pear                      <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information