mod_php script 'queue'

[Bruno - e-comBR <bruno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

While performing some tests, I saw that:

-When I run a PHP script with a infinite loop, the apache process(using mod_prefork) still busy (php.ini timeouts disabled) 'forever' (the obvious fact).
-When I run again the same script with the same URL, apache seems to 'enqueue' the second request, because no other process seems to be running.
-But if I send a SIGTERM to the apache process, it seems to begin processing the second script, and stop the first.
-If I run the script using a different URL(just by changing the query string), it seems to run both process parallely.

It's just the first step. I've done the same tests, but using mod_rewrite. It's different: even with different URL, the process get 'queued'.

I just ask: is this the expected behaviour??

It's causing a little throuble for me. When a PHP script generates a bigger report(taking about ten minutes or more), the user seems to be impatient. They're doing refreshs on the page. So, for each refresh apache is queuing a new script, and just begin running this when the queue is empty again.

What do you suggest me?

Thank you,
Bruno Moreira Guedes