Find out what a httpd process is doing

I need to know what a httpd process is doing

[catalin]

Hello,

some of my httpd processes stay open for a really long time and I'd like to know what they are doing. How can I do that?

thanks

[jdMorgan]

I suppose a real-time debugger would tell you, but those aren't exactly common Webmaster tools.

You might want to check the KeepAlive settings, and make sure they're not set to some ridiculously-long timeout.

Jim

[catalin]

I have these values setup

KeepAliveTimeout 30
MaxKeepAliveRequests 200

is it normal to have httpd processes up for 1 hour? ( top command shows 1:11.76 that is 1 hour and 11 minutes, right? )

[jdMorgan]

1:11.76

Note the decimal point. I believe it's one minute, 11.76 seconds.

Jim

[SeanW]

Depending on what worker you have, you'll see a bunch of child processes running. They're there to save the overhead of starting a new child. Don't worry about them, you can play with MaxSpareServers and such under the appropriate MPM.

If you want to find out the current/last request each child has handled, enable mod_status in httpd.conf. Most httpd.conf files come with it in there, just commented out and tied to the loopback.

Sean

Edit: typo

[edited by: SeanW at 2:44 am (utc) on Sep. 16, 2007]