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Re: Zombie processes



On Mon, 31 Mar 1997, Doron Zifrony wrote:

> > 
> > You wrote:
> > I'm running my system for just four days non-stop, and I already have =
> > two
> > zombie processes, both of them are modprobe. Here's one of them:
> > 20887  ?  Z    0:00 (modprobe <zombie>)
> > Why do they appear? How can I kill them? kill and kill -9 don't seem to
> > help.
> > 
> 
> Shlomi answered:
> 
> > Well, as far as my experience goes, the only way to get rid of such =
> > zombies is to terminate their parent process (preferably in the proper, =
> > clean way). Or you can restart the computer.
> > 
> 
> Every Unix process that finish running is returning a status.  That's the
> value the program passes to the exit() system call, or the value returned
> by the routine main().
> A process does not get erased from the process table until its parent
> receives the process termination status via the wait() system call or its
> derivatives (like wait3(), wait4()).  Until this wait() system call is
> being performed, the process ramins a zombie (or defunct, another name for it).
> 
> I have no idea who the father process for the modprobe program is.  If it is

It might be kerneld.

--Ariel


> some system process, then if it needs to keep running there's nothing you
> can do to remove the Zombies.  If it is dispensable, then you can terminate
> the father process, like Shlomi suggested, and its father process (perhaps
> a shell or init) may do a wait() which will clean up the process table.
> 
> Good Luck,
> 
> Doron
> 
> -- 
> Doron Zifrony                1 Oranim Str.          Tel: 972-3-5304324
> Data General Technology      Givat Shmuel 51905     Fax: 972-3-5325917
>                              Israel              E-Mail: doron@jaguar.dgt.co.il
> Disclaimer: The opinions expressed hereby are my personal opinions.
> 

   +---------------------------------------------------------+
   | Ariel Biener                                            |
   | e-mail: ariel@post.tau.ac.il        Work ph: 03-6406086 |
   +---------------------------------------------------------+


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