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Re: killed process still on-screen



On Sat, Jan 19, 2002 at 12:37:26PM -0800, Eric G. Miller wrote:
| On Sat, 19 Jan 2002 13:52:25 -0500, dman <dsh8290@rit.edu> wrote:
 
| > Those processes are blocked on IO or something.  Thus it is the
| > _kernel_ itself that is stuck, which is why SIGKILL has no effect.
| > When a process is executing in its own space, the kernel can kill it
| > and clean up the pieces.  When the process is executing inside the
| > kernel (in a system call) then the kernel can't blow it away because
| > it would then need to somehow put itself back together.
| 
| I believe those are zombies of one or more forked processes.  They're
| kept around so the parent can do a waitpid() on them.  Other than
| a PID, they shouldn't be taking up any memory or other resources.
| Sylpheed is notorious for creating gpg zombies....  They'll dissappear
| when the parent exits.

That's possible too.  I thought "zombie" meant "blocked in system
call never to return".

There's some app (pstree maybe?) that shows what the parent is.  If
the parent is still around, see if killing it makes the zombies go
away.

-D

-- 

The Lord detests all the proud of heart.
Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.
        Proverbs 16:7



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