diff -r 9724eb19f6d0 Lib/socketserver.py
--- a/Lib/socketserver.py	Sun May 25 14:12:12 2014 +0100
+++ b/Lib/socketserver.py	Sat Jun 07 12:55:41 2014 +0100
@@ -539,35 +539,39 @@
 
     def collect_children(self):
         """Internal routine to wait for children that have exited."""
-        if self.active_children is None: return
+        if self.active_children is None:
+            return
+
+        # If we're above the max number of children, wait and reap them until
+        # we go back below threshold. Note that we use waitpid(-1) below to be
+        # able to collect children in O(<defunct children>) instead of
+        # O(<children>): the downside is that this might reap children which we
+        # didn't spawn, which is why we only resort to this when we're above
+        # max_children.
         while len(self.active_children) >= self.max_children:
-            # XXX: This will wait for any child process, not just ones
-            # spawned by this library. This could confuse other
-            # libraries that expect to be able to wait for their own
-            # children.
             try:
-                pid, status = os.waitpid(0, 0)
+                pid, _ = os.waitpid(-1, 0)
+                self.active_children.discard(pid)
+            except InterruptedError:
+                pass
+            except ChildProcessError:
+                # we don't have any children, we're done
+                self.active_children.clear()
             except OSError:
-                pid = None
-            if pid not in self.active_children: continue
-            self.active_children.remove(pid)
+                break
 
-        # XXX: This loop runs more system calls than it ought
-        # to. There should be a way to put the active_children into a
-        # process group and then use os.waitpid(-pgid) to wait for any
-        # of that set, but I couldn't find a way to allocate pgids
-        # that couldn't collide.
-        for child in self.active_children:
+        # Now reap all defunct children.
+        for pid in self.active_children.copy():
             try:
-                pid, status = os.waitpid(child, os.WNOHANG)
+                pid, _ = os.waitpid(pid, os.WNOHANG)
+                # if the child hasn't exited yet, pid will be 0 and ignored by
+                # discard() below
+                self.active_children.discard(pid)
+            except ChildProcessError:
+                # someone else reaped it
+                self.active_children.discard(pid)
             except OSError:
-                pid = None
-            if not pid: continue
-            try:
-                self.active_children.remove(pid)
-            except ValueError as e:
-                raise ValueError('%s. x=%d and list=%r' % (e.message, pid,
-                                                           self.active_children))
+                pass
 
     def handle_timeout(self):
         """Wait for zombies after self.timeout seconds of inactivity.
@@ -589,8 +593,8 @@
         if pid:
             # Parent process
             if self.active_children is None:
-                self.active_children = []
-            self.active_children.append(pid)
+                self.active_children = set()
+            self.active_children.add(pid)
             self.close_request(request)
             return
         else: