Internal Server Errors

Internal server errors are errors that prevent Apache from fulfilling a request.

Segmentation Faults

"child pid xxx exit signal Segmentation Fault (11)"

A segmentation fault occurs when the Apache server attempts to access memory areas belonging to other system processes or a malformed or illegal instruction is encountered by the system in the Apache process. This is caused either by a bug, usually in poorly written or experimental libraries or modules, or by hardware faults, usually in the system memory, chipset, bus, or processor.

Premature End of Script Headers

[error] [client 192.168.200.3] Premature end of script headers: /usr/local/apache/cgi-bin/test-cgi

A premature end of script headers error is caused by incomplete CGI script execution. Make sure the CGI program has executable permissions and that the interpreter in the first line of the script points to the correct program. For example, you will receive this error if your script begins with #!/usr/local/bin/perl on its first line when in reality your Perl interpreter is located at /usr/bin/perl.

"Premature end of headers" errors are generally due to abnormal program termination before the script has returned any data. Program failures can be caused by a variety of additional reasons, including errors in your code or missing libraries to which the program is linked. In some cases, the operating system or Apache might terminate the process if its resource usage (memory, CPU time) exceeds a certain limit, as explained in Chapter 9.

Malformed Headers

[error] [client 192.168.200.3] malformed header from script. Bad header=xxx: /usr/local/apache/cgi-bin/ example.cgi

A malformed header from script error occurs when headers are not in the appropriate format (usually because of a programming error). The Apache server expects the response from the script to start with zero or more headers, followed by an empty line.