[PHP-INSTALL] Weird open_basedir behaviour

[Tim Garton]

I'm not sure if I have something misconfigured with this one or what, 
but I keep having odd open_basedir problems with my webserver.  i'm 
running apache 2.0.48 with php 4.3.4.  i have a number of virtual hosts, 
the following being an excerpt from the apache config:

<VirtualHost *>

    ServerName www.hightechhigh.org

    ServerAlias hightechhigh.org www

#    php_admin_value open_basedir /www/htdocs:/tmp

</VirtualHost>



<VirtualHost *>

    ServerName plato.hightechhigh.org

    ServerAlias plato plato.ntc.hightechhigh.org

    DocumentRoot /www/platohtdocs

    ErrorLog logs/plato-error_log

    CustomLog logs/plato-access_log combined

#    php_admin_value display_errors On



</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *>
    ServerName staff.hightechhigh.org
    ServerAlias staff
    DocumentRoot /www/platohtdocs
    ErrorLog logs/plato-error_log
    CustomLog logs/plato-access_log combined
    UserDir /home/staff/*
    php_admin_value open_basedir .:/tmp
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *>
    ServerName students.hightechhigh.org
    ServerAlias students
    DocumentRoot /www/platohtdocs
    ErrorLog logs/plato-error_log
    CustomLog logs/plato-access_log combined
    UserDir /home/students/*
    php_admin_value open_basedir .:/tmp
#    php_admin_value display_errors On
</VirtualHost>
...
periodically when i hit one of the pages on the main site, i get a blank 
page, and the following shows up in the error log:

# tail error_log
[client 172.16.10.14] PHP Warning:  main(): open_basedir restriction in 
effect. File(/www/htdocs/common/template.php) is not within the allowed 
path(s): (.:/tmp) in /www/htdocs/schoolinfo/calendar.php on line 2

[client 172.16.10.14] PHP Warning: 
main(/www/htdocs/common/template.php): failed to open stream: Operation 
not permitted in /www/htdocs/schoolinfo/calendar.php on line 2

[client 172.16.10.14] PHP Fatal error:  main(): Failed opening required 
'/www/htdocs/common/template.php' 
(include_path='.:/usr/local/apache2/php/lib/php') in 
/www/htdocs/schoolinfo/calendar.php on line 2

When this happens, I can hit reload and tha page will pop up fine.

I have open_basedir commented out in the php.ini file.  it seems like 
php is picking up the open_basedir value from one virtual host and 
applying it to a different virtual host, some of the time.  any help 
would be appreciated.  if this is a bug, is it in php or apache, and if 
php how do i submit a bug report?  if it matters, this is running on a 
dual pentium 3 machine with linux 2.4.21, apache and php compiled from 
source, with the following commands:

./configure --with-ldap --enable-ldap --enable-auth-ldap --enable-so 
--enable-ssl

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache2/php 
--with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs 
--with-config-file-path=/usr/local/apache2/php 
--with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql --with-ldap

tim