Description:
------------
The -w [deadline] argument to Red Hat's ping command doesn't work when apache runs a php page that invokes the ping command that attempts to ping an unreachable host.

The ping command works fine(it times out) when I run the php script from the command line, and if I run a similiar perl cgi, but the ping command doesn't timeout, so the php script hangs when invoked via apache.

I'm hoping that some how apache/php disables the mechanism the ping command uses to time it's self out, and that there is a work around, or a fix.

Reproduce code:
---------------
<?
print "<plaintext>\n";
$hosts[] = "127.0.0.1";
$hosts[] = "good address";
$hosts[] = "bad address";
foreach ( $hosts as $host ) {
  $cmd = "/bin/ping -c2 -w2 -q '$host'";  # Red Hat
  print "$cmd\n";
  $ph = popen($cmd,"r");
  while ( $line = fgets($ph,2048) ) {
  }
  $status = pclose($ph);
  if ( $status == 0 ) {
    print "$host: SUCCESS($status)\n";
  }
  else {
    print "$host: FAIL($status)\n";
  }
}
?>

Expected result:
----------------
When run from commandline:
<plaintext>
/bin/ping -c2 -w2 -q '127.0.0.1'
127.0.0.1: SUCCESS(0)
/bin/ping -c2 -w2 -q 'good address'
64.102.40.165: SUCCESS(0)
/bin/ping -c2 -w2 -q 'bad address'
64.102.40.167: FAIL(1)

I'd expect the same thing when run from apache

Actual result:
--------------
When run from apache:
I process associated with the ping hangs and needs to 
be killed.