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From: Ed Powell <epowell@visi.com>
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Subject: pchild pool (Apache 1.3)
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:12:46 -0600

I am working on a module for Apache 1.3 (upgrading to 2.x is not an  
option at the moment) where I want to, for each Apache child process  
that spawns, open a file, and keep that file open for reading for the  
life of the child process.  The API document describes a pchild pool  
that sounds exactly like what I want:  lives for the length of the  
child, calls the child_init and child_exit handlers where I can stick  
the ap_fopen and ap_fclose functions into...

Problem is, I have no idea how to use this.  I suppose its more of a  
problem of not knowing how to use pools for storing my own information.

I could allocate sizeof(FILE) to the pchild pool, and I'll get a  
pointer back, and store the file descriptor in there.  Great... now  
how do I tell the rest of the module what that pointer is?  Just put  
in a "static FILE *myfile;" line in the code?  Is that going to be  
multi-process safe?  (I get the feeling I'm asking the wrong  
questions...)