Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site cbnap.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!cbosgd!cbdkc1!cbnap!whp From: whp@cbnap.UUCP (W. H. Pollock x4575 3S235) Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: killing zombies Message-ID: <37@cbnap.UUCP> Date: Mon, 12-Aug-85 19:09:48 EDT Article-I.D.: cbnap.37 Posted: Mon Aug 12 19:09:48 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 17-Aug-85 13:04:56 EDT References: <368@imsvax.UUCP> <564@bu-cs.UUCP> Reply-To: whp@cbnap.UUCP (W. H. Pollock x4575 3S235) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus Lines: 15 I missed the original article for this discussion, but I thought I'd give my two cents worth anyway. The reason you can't kill a zombie process is because IT IS ALREADY DEAD!! A zombie process ONLY takes up a slot in the proc table (and not even a full entry!) and no other storage (on SVR2 anyway, if my memory serves). The only reason for zombies is that there is no other way for a child process to return an exit status to the parent. If the zombie is an orphan (i.e., its parent process id is 1), you can always clean it up by signaling init (via kill) with SIGCLD (which wakes up init which then cleans up all orphaned zombies). This has worked for me on SRV2 (I think, it was a while ago). Wayne Pollock