Stas, I just checked, and when the Apache crash occurs, nothing gets written to access_log. It would seem that the crash happens before the request is logged.
Also, > b) why my warnings don't show up in the error_log. I just moved my mod_perl config from httpd.conf to another file, mod_perl.conf, and Include that in httpd.conf. (I did that so that I don't have to comment the whole section for mod_perl when I want to deactivate it, I just have to comment the Include line). Now, magically, the warnings and the Apache::Reload debug messages show up in my error_log! The only other thing I changed between now and before is that I added the "PerlSwitches -Id:/htdocs" directive. But that should have no influence on whether warnings are written to the error_log or not... What's happening? Is my whole Apache setup whacked? Maybe I should reinstall Apache and mod_perl? J-S