MiniVend dies with concurrent requests

["Bill" <bill@webteam.net>]

I've been having a problem with minivend crashing when it receives several
concurrent requests.  The error can also be reproduced by reloading any page
in my catalog several times very quickly.  From mail posts, it sounds like
many people have done load testing without experiencing this problem, but I
don't have the slightest idea where to start looking for a solution to this.

There's nothing in the error logs.  Checking processes, I see a number of
catalog requests waiting to be served, and one that appears to be defunct.
However, minivend appears to be hung and never recovers.  I've seen defunct
processes before, but they are usually terminated and minivend continues on
its way.  I have found that running debug (-D4096) in the foreground
prevents Minivend from crashing.

Any ideas on what to?  I'm running MV3.12 on Digital Unix 550MHz, 512 RAM.

Bill Rothbauer