Bug#504648: libdbd-mysql-perl: DBD::mysql segfaults on mysql_ping and auto_reconnect in mod_perl environments

[Phil Doroff]

Package: libdbd-mysql-perl
Version: 4.008-1
Severity: normal


After migrating one of our production systems from Etch to Lenny, one of our mod_perl applications started intermittently segfaulting on some page loads.  After much troubleshooting, this was narrowed down to the mysql_ping function in DBD::mysql combined with auto reconnects when an open database connection had "went away" due to a timeout or other problem.

After further research, it does appear this bug has been reported upstream: http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=37027

Since test code has been supplied via the upstream bug reporting system, I will not attach unless requested.  A patch may or may not be available, but it has not been integrated into the upstream released package yet.

We have tested this bug on 4.007 and 4.008 and reproduced it reliably with both.  A downgrade to 4.005 seems to alleviate this problem.

Since this is a servere regression for us (we cannot use Lenny on our production web cluster as-is), I also presume it is for others - as DBD::mysql is a rather common package in use by those w/ Perl installs.  This does not require mod_perl to surface, however given most common use cases it is likely to pose a more widespread problem than standalone Perl programs and CGI scripts.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.24.2 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages libdbd-mysql-perl depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.7-15     GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libdbi-perl                   1.607-1    Perl5 database interface by Tim Bu
ii  libmysqlclient15off           5.0.51a-15 MySQL database client library
ii  perl                          5.10.0-16  Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 
ii  perl-base [perlapi-5.10.0]    5.10.0-16  minimal Perl system

libdbd-mysql-perl recommends no packages.

libdbd-mysql-perl suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information