[ILUG] [OT] defunct process ?

[Paul J Collins]

>>>>> "DG" == Declan Grady <Declan.Grady at nuvotem.com> writes:

    DG> {A bit OT as it's on a unix box, not linux.}
    DG> What in under god is a 'defunct' process ?

Defunct, aka zombie processes are those that have exiting but whose
parent has not yet collected their exit status[0].  If some particular
program is leaving a lot of these around for a long time, it's usually
a bug.

Zombie processes become a problem when your OS's process table starts
to fill up, preventing you from forking.

If the parent of the process that has zombie children is init, killing
the offending parent will cause its children to be inherited by init,
which should then collect their exit status and allow their slots in
the process table to be freed.

[0] Using a system call such as waitpid

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