What is your ./configure line?

i did not build apache or mod_php it came in the redhat box

Then what line did they use? (check phpinfo() output)

how would I do that - I never use PHP. I just found it to be the problem by commenting out LoadModules from the default redhat configuration until things stopped breaking.

ok - so I lied. Sorry
a) turns out this is redhat 9 not es3
b) its php 4.2.2 (came in the redhat box)
I cannot repro on es3 with 4.3.2 (in box version)
It would be nice to know that "yes this was a bug and we fixed it in vxxx".
php -i says
'./configure' '--host=i386-redhat-linux' '--build=i386-redhat-linux' '--target=i386-redhat-linux-gnu' '--program-prefix=' '--prefix=/usr' '--exec-prefix=/usr' '--bindir=/usr/bin' '--sbindir=/usr/sbin' '--sysconfdir=/etc' '--datadir=/usr/share' '--includedir=/usr/include' '--libdir=/usr/lib' '--libexecdir=/usr/libexec' '--localstatedir=/var' '--sharedstatedir=/usr/com' '--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--infodir=/usr/share/info' '--cache-file=../config.cache' '--with-config-file-path=/etc' '--with-config-file-scan-dir=/etc/php.d' '--enable-force-cgi-redirect' '--disable-debug' '--enable-pic' '--disable-rpath' '--enable-inline-optimization' '--with-bz2' '--with-db3' '--with-curl' '--with-dom=/usr' '--with-exec-dir=/usr/bin' '--with-freetype-dir=/usr' '--with-png-dir=/usr' '--with-gd' '--enable-gd-native-ttf' '--with-ttf' '--with-gdbm' '--with-gettext' '--with-ncurses' '--with-gmp' '--with-iconv' '--with-jpeg-dir=/usr' '--with-openssl' '--with-png' '--with-pspell' '--with-regex=system' '--with-xml' '--with-expat-dir=/usr' '--with-zlib' '--with-layout=GNU' '--enable-bcmath' '--enable-exif' '--enable-ftp' '--enable-magic-quotes' '--enable-safe-mode' '--enable-sockets' '--enable-sysvsem' '--enable-sysvshm' '--enable-discard-path' '--enable-track-vars' '--enable-trans-sid' '--enable-yp' '--enable-wddx' '--without-oci8' '--with-pear=/usr/share/pear' '--with-imap=shared' '--with-imap-ssl' '--with-kerberos=/usr/kerberos' '--with-ldap=shared' '--with-mysql=shared,/usr' '--with-pgsql=shared' '--with-snmp=shared,/usr' '--with-snmp=shared' '--enable-ucd-snmp-hack' '--with-unixODBC=shared' '--enable-memory-limit' '--enable-bcmath' '--enable-shmop' '--enable-versioning' '--enable-calendar' '--enable-dbx' '--enable-dio' '--enable-mcal' '--enable-force-cgi-redirect'

Whatever it was it wasn't something PHP has to take care of. We don't have anything using kerberos, just some libraries we link which do and it's their duty to handle it correctly.

oops - it really was es3 (too many machines in lab) - doubly sorry. Php 4.3.2

I am confused - the configure says --with-kerberos=xxxx how can you say its nothing to do with php.

It certainly not 'bogus' the bug really happens and its really serious and other have reported it

Can you tell me what other libraries you are using that might be at fault (what module requires the --with-kerberos) - then I can pass it on

Well, the kerberos library obviously (libkrb5) or what it is called. And this is used by the IMAP extension AFAIK. Anyway, this is *not* a bug in PHP, it's simply that library that locks the file, not PHP itself.

thanks - I found the bug in the UW c-client IMAP code and have reported it to them