forking/subprocess/etc

[Jonathan <suppressed>]

Right now in a modperl app, I have this functionality:

	mod-perl request 1:
		User requests a contact list to be imported from the internet,
		mp logs a 'request' to a database, redirects to status page

	python daemon
		continually checks database for import requests, performs import,  
cleans up requests

	mod-perl request 2+
		checks for import request status, reload every 20s

That  works perfect for most of my stuff...

however, a new function I've just worked out has a rather lengthy  
logic system and series of Regex calls that are already written in Perl.
Its not like a lot of the admin/management stuff in python, and i  
dont feel like converting stuff today

so i need to get this handled within mod_perl somehow, and am a bit  
uneasy on how to handle this

Possible Solutions:
	handle import within mod_perl
		No.
			Import can take 5-200s, as it requires downloading multiple URLs.   
That blocks apache.
	fork() within mod_perl
		Probable No.
 			online docs suggest this will fork apache+modperl, which would  
take up too much memory
			child processes will persist as zombies when complete

i've got to be missing something

anyone have a clue?  the archives on the list aren't very helpful.



// Jonathan Vanasco

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