The DBI->trace output showed me that mysql_auto_reconnect was on when the script was run by Apache.

Note that this is true even if you don't have Apache::DBI (which completely overloads disconnect), and even if you don't have mod_perl. DBD::mysql checks for MOD_PERL or GATEWAY_INTERFACE in the env, and if it sees them, turns on mysql_auto_reconnect on the handle when you connect. (perldoc DBD::mysql for details.)

So in my case I needed to explicitly set  $dbh->{mysql_auto_reconnect} = 0 and then call $dbh->disconnect. Otherwise, when I "verify that it's disconnected" with the ping() call, I actually reconnect first. (The ping() was really just something I was doing to make sure that Apache::DBI hadn't snuck itself back in--a debugging device.)

Thanks again for help everyone.

Oh, also, in comparing two DBI->trace outputs I wrote a hack to help diff ignore the differences in memory addresses. Here it is:

#!perl -w

#use like this, if file1 and file2 are two traces of similar db operat
+ions:
# perl ox2read <file1 >file1scrub
# perl ox2read <file2 >file2scrub
# diff -c file1scrub file2scrub >mydiff

use strict;
my @seen_addy = ();
while (my $line = <>) {
    foreach my $sr ( @seen_addy ) {
        my $search = $sr->[0];
        my $replace = $sr->[1];
        $line =~ s/$search/$replace/g;
    }   
    while ($line =~ /(0x\w+)/) {
        my $search = $1;
        my $last_replace = @seen_addy ? $seen_addy[$#seen_addy]->[1] :
+ 'addy001';
        my $replace = ++$last_replace;
        push @seen_addy, [$search, $replace];
        $line =~ s/$search/$replace/g;
    }
    print $line;
}
[download]

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.