[Bug 1023591] [NEW] php5 opens /proc/XXX/auxv thousands of times until Apache crashes with "too many open files"

[Jens]

Public bug reported:

Hello,

PHP5, or rather "php-cgi", seems to open /proc/$PID/auxv a lot and
doesn't close all file descriptors when restarting with "apachectl
graceful", until eventually, the system runs out of file descriptors.

After about four weeks of uptime my Linux box (Ubuntu 12.04.1) had over
90'000 opened files, almost all of them were the above. Then Apache
refused "apachectl graceful" because Linux could not open all files any
more.

After restarting Apache, all files were closed again. Now, the file
descriptors are leaking again - much more slowly because my cron scripts
use "apachectl restart" now instead of "apachectl graceful", but still.
After two weeks, I have roughly 15'000 opened files, of which 8'000 are
/proc/$PID/auxv.

I think this is quite a serious bug since it makes the system grind to a
halt eventually.

Thank you for investigating!

Regards,
Jens


PS: "lsof" shows it like this:

php-cgi   32268        sdm   77r      REG                0,3         0  690669699 /proc/20964/auxv
php-cgi   32268        sdm   78r      REG                0,3         0  690669699 /proc/20964/auxv
php-cgi   32268        sdm   79r      REG                0,3         0  690669699 /proc/20964/auxv
php-cgi   32268        sdm   80r      REG                0,3         0  690669699 /proc/20964/auxv
...
php-cgi   32268        sdm  281r      REG                0,3         0  690669699 /proc/20964/auxv

for each php-cgi process. 20964 is the "apache2" main process.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: php5 5.3.10-1ubuntu3.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.37-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Jul 11 22:13:27 2012
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: php5
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-05-04 (68 days ago)

** Affects: php5 (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: amd64 apport-bug precise

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Server Team, which is subscribed to php5 in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1023591

Title:
  php5 opens /proc/XXX/auxv thousands of times until Apache crashes with
  "too many open files"

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/php5/+bug/1023591/+subscriptions