Extra processes/will not die

I'm running Ruby on Rails with mod_fastcgi under Apache 1.3 and am
having trouble keeping the server responsive for long periods of time.
My Apache config follows:

<IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
        FastCgiIpcDir /tmp/fcgi_ipc
        FastCgiServer /path/dispatch.fcgi -initial-env -processes 5
-idle-timeout 60
</IfModule>

After running for a while (sorry I can't be more specific on this
point, but it takes more than a few hours and less than a week), I
begin to receive Apache 500 errors. If I check the process list, it
appears that there are the maximum number (as set in config) of
running Ruby processes:

nobody   31752  0.1  1.6 20592 17088 ?       S    May26   0:02
/usr/bin/ruby /path/dispatch.fcgi

There are the max number of processes before the errors start, too,
although everything works perfectly. I believe it may have something
to do with how FastCGI tries to kill the Ruby processes, but I cannot
be sure, as I do not know much of the FCGI internals.

Kill9'ing the processes achieves nothing, but `apachectl restart`
helps. Obviously this isn't something I want to do often.

I have heard that there is better success using the FCGI plugin for
LigHTTPd, but using that server software isn't an option for me at the
moment.

What could be causing the errors?

Sincerely,

Tom Reinhart
[email protected]
http://AllTom.com/
___________________________________
fastcgi-developers mailing list
http://fastcgi.com/fastcgi-developers/