You can use mod_perl or FastCGI to limit cgi runtime, reload progs against memory leaks, limit the number of scripts to be running at any time, load shared objects, preload CGIs (almost like multithreading) and reduce server load. Nowadays, there is no reason to go without such insanely useful Apache mods. My argument against the alarm is that it is A solution but not the best solution. The best is simply to remove the infinite loop or memory leak. If you just throw in an alarm, your script will be killed, perhaps for now reason at all while you searching desperately for the error. Also, this is not portable in the sense that the script may take 10 seconds on computer #1 and 400 seconds on computer #2. This is not good. Throwing in dependence on time is not a good way to ensure user-friendliness. Using the FastCGI mechanism rather than alarm also is smarter, since FastCGI is not script dependent but server dependent and the server isn't likely to be moving around much, thus the same functionality via a better channel.

AgentM Systems nor Nasca Enterprises nor Bone::Easy nor Macperl is responsible for the comments made by AgentM. Remember, you can build any logical system with NOR.