Child pid xxx exit signal Segmentation fault (11)

Sometimes apache is crashing and all or some PHP pages are showing blank when you browse it. Also apache error logs shows following errors.

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[Thu Dec 24 09:12:03 2009] [notice] child pid 8877 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)

[Thu Dec 24 09:12:38 2009] [notice] child pid 8466 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)

[Thu Dec 24 09:12:38 2009] [notice] child pid 8883 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)

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Solution:

Edit httpd.conf file and add following line in the main config.

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CoreDumpDirectory /tmp/apache2-gdb-dump

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Then create following folder in /tmp and change the permisssion

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root@server [~] mkdir -p /tmp/apache2-gdb-dump

root@server [~] chmod 0777 /tmp/apache2-gdb-dump

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Also make changes in to following file.

root@server [~] nano /usr/sbin/httpd

Search for ulimit lines .For eg : you can see these lines

ulimit -n 1024

ulimit -n 4096

ulimit -n 8192

ulimit -n 16384

You need to add ulimit -c 0 at the end .Which will look like :

ulimit -n 1024

ulimit -n 4096

ulimit -n 8192

ulimit -n 16384

ulimit -c 0

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Stop and start apache server

root@server [~] /etc/init.d/httpd stop

root@server [~] /etc/init.d/httpd start