Is there a way to do large queries that return lots of data without having my apache process grow by the equivalent size in ram of the data returned?
Yes. Many databases support sending the results a few rows at a time instead of all at once. For specific advice on this, you might check your DBD documentation or ask on the dbi-users list. You can also have your program schedule the current apache process to exit after finishing the current request if you load a large amount of data into it.
- Perrin
