how to kill unused connections

i have web written in php (4.3.9) which is connected to the oracle DB (10g). user can submit query and see results. Time to time i got error in web application:

ociplogon(): _oci_open_server: ORA-12516: TNS:listener could not find available handler with matching protocol stack

users can not login and perform query. after reset of httpd, web goes to normal.

after googling i found:

• this error is caused because max limit of connections to the oracle is reached
• so i guess there are some dead/unused connections to the DB and are cleaned by reset of httpd
• user is connected by php command ociplogon which is persistent
• "OCILogoff() does nothing at the moment..." (bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=11234)

is there some way how to clean unused/dead connections? set so开发者_开发百科me timeout?

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This is because of lot of open connection to the DB, after doing specified operation you are suppose to close.

Look into oci_close^Docs to learn how to close an OCI connection and oci_connect^Docs for more information about connecting to OCI.