For what it's worth this is also why I don't like to use "mod_perl" for any heavy-lifting, or for anything (like XML processing) that might eat up a lot of memory and/or do so unpredictably. I like to use FastCGI ... or even a request that is offloaded using the FastCGI protocol ... or POE or what-have-you
ifrom
/ a mod_perl driver ... to do things like that. I don't like having a single Apache server-process, having processed tens of thousands of "routine, small" Perl-based requests, to suddenly get transformed into a million-pound gorilla by virtue of having directly handled such an out-of-the-ordinary request. I say, let the Apache processes be a user-interface and nothing more.
