memory leak with dbi and mod_perl

[Tim Gardner]

I am having a problem maintaining a dbh handle between database 
calls.  If I disconnect immediately after every query _WITHIN_ the 
same routine which makes the query, there is no leak, but if I store 
the $dbh obtained from connect and then disconnect outside of the 
routine, I leak memory under mod_perl.  I would very much appreciate 
any help on this.

Here are the steps to demonstrate the leak:

1) Start httpd with mod_perl, keep number of processes low (5-10 
should do) that
will show the results fastest.

2) Run
       ps -ely | grep http | sort
    to monitor process sizes

3) From (preferably) another machine run
      /path/to/apache/bin/ab -n 5000 -c 50 
http://host.with.test.install/mod_perl/test.cgi

4) Watch the memory usage grow as you run and repeat 3)


Here is the (pared-down) program which leaks.  If I uncomment the 
'endConnection();' line in the getall function, there is no leak, but 
then I lose the ability to reuse the handle in the unabridged program.


#!/usr/local/bin/perl
use strict;
use DBI;
use vars qw( $gDBH);
sub endConnection
{
        if ($gDBH eq 0) {
        } else {
                $gDBH->disconnect();
                $gDBH = 0;
        }
}
sub getConnection
{
        if ($gDBH) { return $gDBH; }
        my $dbh;
        $dbh = DBI->connect( "id", "user", "pwd", 'Oracle' );
        $gDBH = $dbh;
        return $dbh;
}
sub getall
{
        my ($sql) = @_;
        my $dbh = getConnection();
        my $cursor = $dbh->prepare( $sql);
        my $rlt = $cursor->execute();
        my $rows = $cursor->fetchall_arrayref();
        $cursor->finish();
        #endConnection();
        return $rows;
}
sub main
{
        my $sql = "select to_char(SYSDATE,'YYYY MM DD HH24 MI SS') from dual";
        my $rows = getall( $sql);
        endConnection();
        my $row = $rows->[0];
        print "time: $row->[0]<br>\n";
}
$ENV{'ORACLE_HOME'}     = "/users/oracle/product/8.0.5";
print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n";
print "hello\n";
&main();