[2721] in RedHat Linux List
Re: What is a zombie process?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tim Baverstock)
Tue Nov 5 06:14:44 1996
From: Tim Baverstock <warwick@mmm.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 11:12:40 GMT
To: redhat-list@redhat.com
In-reply-to: <199611050639.BAA32149@redhat.com> (redhat-digest-request@redhat.com)
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Brad Dixon wrote:
>A general linux question:
It's a general Unix question, not Linux. You may like to read up on fork(),
or read a good book on Unix programming or deeper administration.
>What is a zombie process? By top's say:
A zombie is the remains of a process which has died, but whose parent
has yet to ask for its exit status. If a process's parent dies without
asking, init (process 1) inherits the orphan, and when the orphan
exits, asks for its exit status (and forgets it) just to clear it from
the system.
If init (process 1) dies (or if a long-lived parent simply never reaps
its children), this reaping isn't done, and your system becomes
cluttered with zombies.
Init isn't supposed to die, but I once experienced it doing so under a
1.2.5 kernel - I just rebooted (after panicking a bit :) If it happens
for you on a regular basis, something may well be kooky.
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