Thanks a lot for the first concrete steps towards a work around - work forever solution regarding lifetime of certain servers.

I am aware of sleep being the possible "loss of data" - period, your scenario explains the problem excellently.
Besides, I am stopping and re-starting the server because no other action (kill -HUP, native restart) solves the hang-up.
What would be your approach (using select)?

Be the munk that enlightens my soul and mind :-)

-r