The following php lines :-

<?PHP
    $fp = fopen("php://stderr", "w");
    fputs($fp, "here's a debug message");
    fclose($fp);
    phpinfo();
?>

work the first time but the second time reply with :-

Warning: fopen("php://stderr","w") - Bad file descriptor in /home/sites/site2/users/jbarrett/web/test.php on line 2

Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid File-Handle resource in /home/sites/site2/users/jbarrett/web/test.php on line 3

Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid File-Handle resource in /home/sites/site2/users/jbarrett/web/test.php on line 4

unless apache is restarted. Called it apache related cos the code works fine on console but only fails this way as an apache module. (more than likely something to do with PHP "cleaning up" the file pointer)