Bug #11254 for mod_perl: Corruption of data during apache startup

Due to a clmbing memory problem with mod_perl compiled as a DSO, we've been trying to move towards a statically linked version of mod_perl into apache. Unfortunately, we've seen a rather serious bug which affects data initialisation during server startup time on FreeBSD. Currently, using the test case attached under DSO circumstances we see the following: Create Hash [1] [1] set "a" [1] set "b" Destroy Hash [1] Create Hash [2] [2] set "a" [2] set "b" Destroy Hash [2] However under freebsd (and only freebsd) we've been getting the following when mod_perl is statically linked: Create Hash [1] [1] set "a" [1] set "b" [1] set "a" Create Hash [2] Destroy Hash [1] [2] set "b" Destroy Hash [2] Currently we do a lot of initialisation of data during server startup to create a "cache". However since we cannot depend on these hashes being intansiated correctly, it's a real issue. We have tested on both linux and freebsd machines with multiple versions of each operating system along with many different compilation techniques. We've been able to reproduce this problem on all freebsd platforms (both 4.X and 5.X) and with completely vanilla installs of both the operating system and apache/mod_perl. Perl version in the main has been 5.8.x. Linux systems seem to be unaffected. There is all the code for a small testcase attached to this rt entry, along with apache server configuration additions. These must be included at a very early stage of the configuration process.