defunct process

[ossupport55]

folks,

I have a defuct process where the PPID is 1. Anyway to get rid of it. OS is RHEL 4.6

cheers

[Goran Koruga · Accepted solution]

Hello.

Defunct as in in state Z? Just ignore it - the process has exited but its parent process failed to run wait() or its variant for the PID. It's not doing anything anyway.

init will periodically do that and it may go away, but not always AFAIK.

Regards,
Goran

[dirk dierickx]

if it stays in your process list and you must get rid of it, there is nothing that can be done except reboot.

[ossupport55]

The process shows as Zl what does that mean.

[Prashanth Waugh]

Hi,

I think Z is showing zombie process. Zombies can be identified in the output from the Unix ps command by the presence of a â Zâ in the â STATâ column


Regards,
prashant

[loco_vikide]

Hello,

Z status stands for Defunct ("zombie") process, terminated but not reaped by its parent.

Unlike Unix, Linux periodically cleans up defunct processes without system reboot. Your defunct process will be eventually removed by OS.

Cheers

[Dennis Handly]

>I have a defunct process where the PPID is 1.

On HP-UX, this can't happen, zombies are reaped by init. I would think Linux would work the same. Are you sure this isn't a wedged process? (Hmm, you mentioned Z below.)

>loco_vikide: Your defunct process will be eventually removed by OS.

Hmm, I would have thought init would be working a little faster so you wouldn't see it.

[ossupport55]

I managed to start another process and get the backup done. Letting the zombies take their time.

Thanks folks