This bug happens sporadically. I am using the module with apache 1.3.6.
It seems to happen more frequently after the child processes serve a large number
of requests, but some children can serve tons of requests with no problems.

The error I get is:
PHP 3 Fatal error:  Call to unsupported or undefined function db_write() in global.php on line 30

global.php, which is required at the top of just about every page on my site begins like this:

<?php
if (!isset($GLOBAL_PHP_ALREADY_INCLUDED)) {

  $GLOBAL_PHP_ALREADY_INCLUDED = 1;
  $DEBUG = 0;
  
  function db_read() {
    global $DATABASE_READ;
    mysql_connect($DATABASE_READ,"user","password");
    mysql_select_db("dbname");
  }

  function db_write() {
    global $DATABASE_WRITE;
    mysql_pconnect($DATABASE_WRITE,"user","password");
    mysql_select_db("dbname");
  }

  function db_other() {
    global $DATABASE_OTHER;
    mysql_pconnect($DATABASE_OTHER,"user","password");
    mysql_select_db("dbname");
  }  

  db_write();


-----------

and the error is happening when it gets to the db_write() call. The function has to be defined at that point, since the code that defines it is just a few lines above the function call.

I use these db_*() functions to switch between which database server the php script is talking to as it executes.