unpredictable errors on my current web server

I am running redhat 7.3, with current 1.4.2.  Most of the time,
everything is fine, but periodically the web server gives weird
errors.  These errors happen with both current and when just getting
static files, but they seem to always have something to do with
current.

For example, I set up a loop that just retrieved the same static file
1000 times.  I used wget, and I was getting a kickstart cfg file.
Most of the time, I got the correct file, no problem.  But sometimes I
got a bad file, which apparently contained the actual error messages.
The contents were:


Mod_python error: "PythonHandler apache"

Traceback (innermost last):

  File "/usr/lib/python1.5/site-packages/mod_python/apache.py", line
  185, in Disp
atch
    result = object(req)

  File "/var/www/html/apache.py", line 96, in handler
    get_config()

  File "/var/www/html/apache.py", line 39, in get_config
    config.cfg.load()

  File "/var/www/html/config.py", line 99, in load
    tmp = self.readConfigFile(file)

  File "/var/www/html/config.py", line 202, in readConfigFile
    parser.read(filename)

  File "/usr/lib/python1.5/site-packages/ConfigParser.py", line 175,
  in read
    self.__read(fp)

  File "/usr/lib/python1.5/site-packages/ConfigParser.py", line 326,
  in __read
    raise e

ParsingError: File contains parsing errors: /etc/current/current.conf
        [line 113]: '[redhat-i386-7.3]\012'
        [line 132]: '[redhat-i386-7.2]\012'
        [line 151]: '[redhat-i386-8.0]\012'
        [line 176]: '[biology-7.1-i386]\012'


Other times, I got a different bad file, that looked like:


Mod_python error: "PythonHandler apache"

Traceback (innermost last):

  File "/usr/lib/python1.5/site-packages/mod_python/apache.py", line
  185, in Disp
atch
    result = object(req)

  File "/var/www/html/apache.py", line 99, in handler
    start_db()

  File "/var/www/html/apache.py", line 43, in start_db
    for chan in config.cfg.getItem('valid_channels'):

  File "/var/www/html/config.py", line 117, in getItem
    return self._data[item]

KeyError: valid_channels



As I said, most of the time I got a valid file (a kickstart config as
it happens).  This seems pretty bizarre.  Presumably, if my
current.conf file was truly misconfigured, I would always get the
error, wouldn't I?

The problem started a few days ago, right after I rebuilt the current
databases and restarted apache.  When I noticed the problem, I tried
deleting the database and rebuilding, but it didn't seem to help.  My
server was recently upgraded to all the latest redhat patches.  I
haven't modified the current.conf file in about a month (I've
restarted the webserver a couple of times since then).

Adrian