RE: Bash error log clues?

>
>Did the webserver user (httpd, apache, or whatever) happen to get assigned 
>a shell? If so, what happens when you change the webserver's shell to 
>/bin/false?  I'm almost wondering if the webserver user doesn't have a 
>.bashrc that has something in it. (The webserver does not need a shell in 
>order to own the web service child processes).
>
>Best,
>Scott Temaat, President/CEO


That sounded promising, but no dice. The user assigned to web processes is 
not assigned a shell, at least according to the passwd file (I assume 
that's where I'd find that info). Further examination shows that this error 
could be triggered up to once per minute, but since there is no timestamp 
on the error, I'd have to count the number of times per 24 hours to get an 
idea. I've checked all of the .bashrc files on the server and they all 
contain the generic:

# .bashrc

# User specific aliases and functions

# Source global definitions
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
         . /etc/bashrc
fi

/etc/bashrc does exist

It's tempting to think that a process is using a bash shell and choking on 
the ";" in the first executable line, but I don't see how that could be as 
my research shows that to be a pretty generic .bashrc content for RedHat.

I'm now looking into the possibility that a pre-installed cron job is 
triggering the error. There is one, update_pop which runs every minute 
although it is a perl script with the proper path to perl in it. It runs as 
root (root is assigned the bash shell) and does make system calls, so I'm 
wondering if perhaps one of the sytem calls it makes triggers a bash error 
and if that is what I'm seeing. I tried running the "LogLevel debug" line 
in httpd.conf to see if that would force more detailed error messages, but 
I'm still stuck with the cryptic:

sh: syntax error near unexpected token `;'
sh: -c: line 1: `;'

with no timestamp of program data.

I'll keep poking around and report anything further I find. This is 
starting to rule my life. . .

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