topic Re: a process killing script in Operating System - HP-UX

a process killing script

Phillip Popp — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:31:55 GMT

Hi,
Really don't know any scripting. I am in the HP 10.2 enviroment. Writing in Ksh shell. I need to find all process that are defunct and delete them with a script I can put on a cron.

Can any one help.

Thanks,

Phil

Re: a process killing script

Jeff Schussele — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:43:45 GMT

Hi Phil,

Well...this may be a headbanger for you.
Defunct processes are also known as zombie processes and as such you need to understand they are *already* dead & can't be killed.

This would only be a problem if the number, mem size or resources these processes hold become constraining.

My 2 cents,
Jeff Schussele

Re: a process killing script

Dennis Handly — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:44:18 GMT

You can't kill zombies, you can only kill the zombie master. Since this requires a judgment call, you should do this manually.
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1145648

Re: a process killing script

James R. Ferguson — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:48:07 GMT

Hi Phillip:

You can find "defunct" processes by running 'ps -ef' and grepping for "" or by running 'UNIX95= ps -o pid,state' and looking for pids with a "Z" state.

That said, trying to kill them isn't going to work. A defunct process is otherwise known as a "zombie". It is already dead, waiting for its parent to reap its termination status before it is removed from the kernel's process table.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: a process killing script

Dennis Handly — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:13:51 GMT

If you have no further questions for this topic you may want to consider closing the thread so everyone knows there is a solution.
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/helptips.do?#40

Re: a process killing script

rmueller58 — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:31:46 GMT

ps -ef |grep -v -f /usr/local/bin/patt.1 |grep $1 > temp.1
kill -9 `awk '{print $2}' temp.1`
rm temp.1

Re: a process killing script

Suraj K Sankari — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:11:05 GMT

Hi,

As I know defunct are called also zombie process which are not able to kill, you can find those process with
# ps â aef | grep â i defunct

If you see too many defunct process then better reboot the server.

Suraj

Re: a process killing script

Phillip Popp — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:13:40 GMT

Thanks I have learned a lot