From: jo@88opensi.88open.ORG (Jo Stockley) Subject: Re: Zombies are very nasty little buggers Date: 2 Dec 1992 01:49:29 GMT
In article <1fcqs3INNgks@fbi-news.Informatik.Uni-Dortmund.DE> sprave@gonzo.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Joachim Sprave) writes:
>In article <168AF8D42.HIPKR@ibm.rz.tu-clausthal.de>,
>HIPKR@ibm.rz.tu-clausthal.de (P.Kruse) writes:
>
>[...]
>|> You can kill the zombies with 'kill -9 <pid>' where pid means
>|> the process-id reported from the ps.
>|>
>|> If that doesn't work, try to debug not under root.
>|> If it's possible, add a new user and use this new user for
>|> developing software.
>[...]
>
>I don't know how Linux handles processes which are waiting
>for unreachable devices like printers out of paper or something
>like that. In most unices they will get a kill signal just
>when they are awaken, what *never* will happen.
>
I thought a zombie was a process that had died (called exit) but it's parent
hadn't done a wait() on it. In *some* implementations all the resources of the
process get released except the process table entry. This is because the exit
status is saved there for the parent.
>That's why they are called zombies: they exist, but they
>can't be killed.
>
Thats why they're called zombies: they've died but still "walk the earth" >:-)
: they're dead but haven't been burried...
-- Jo Stockley Phone: (408) 436 6600 88open Consortium Ltd. Fax: (408) 436 0725 100 Homeland Court, Suite 800 Email: jo@88open.org San Jose, ...!uunet!88opensi!jo