Oracle 8.1.5 all current patches
Apache 1.3.9

Note that doing the same thing without oracle works fine.
This is what didn't work.

1) Stop httpd

2) Edit /usr/sbin/apxs

3)complile php3 by:
./configure --with-apxs=/usr/sbin/apxs --with-oracle
make
make install

4) When I restart apache it immediately core dumps.

I run gdb on the core and get this as the backtrace:

#0  0x2b2a4944 in ?? ()
#1  0x2b2f4dd9 in _nss_nis_gethostbyname2_r (name=0x80bec0c "savos.dtgroup.com", af=2, 
    host=0x2ac3b7e4, buffer=0x80bbcd0 "\177", buflen=1024, errnop=0x2ac39720, 
    h_errnop=0x7fffda84) at nss_nis/nis-hosts.c:254
#2  0x2b2f57a1 in _nss_nis_gethostbyname_r (name=0x80bec0c "savos.dtgroup.com", 
    host=0x2ac3b7e4, buffer=0x80bbcd0 "\177", buflen=1024, errnop=0x2ac39720, 
    h_errnop=0x7fffda84) at nss_nis/nis-hosts.c:339
#3  0x2ac0e87f in __gethostbyname_r (name=0x80bec0c "savos.dtgroup.com", resbuf=0x2ac3b7e4, 
    buffer=0x80bbcd0 "\177", buflen=1024, result=0x7fffda80, h_errnop=0x7fffda84)
    at ../nss/getXXbyYY_r.c:182
#4  0x2ac0d814 in gethostbyname (name=0x80bec0c "savos.dtgroup.com") at ../nss/getXXbyYY.c:137
#5  0x8060b0e in ap_init_vhost_config ()
#6  0x8060bef in ap_parse_vhost_addrs ()
#7  0x8053c21 in ap_init_virtual_host ()
#8  0x8055f15 in ap_exists_config_define ()
#9  0x80532fc in ap_clear_module_list ()
#10 0x805350c in ap_handle_command ()
#11 0x8053558 in ap_srm_command_loop ()
#12 0x80538c7 in ap_process_resource_config ()
#13 0x8053f44 in ap_read_config ()
#14 0x805ae47 in ap_child_terminate ()
#15 0x805b4fb in main ()
#16 0x2ab621fb in __libc_start_main (main=0x805b290 <main>, argc=2, argv=0x7ffffd54, 
    init=0x804e684 <_init>, fini=0x80794ec <_fini>, rtld_fini=0x2aab5610 <_dl_fini>, 
    stack_end=0x7ffffd4c) at ../sysdeps/generic/libc-start.c:90