We have HP/UX PA/RISC 11.11. Currently we see about 10 processes in
defunct process. "kill -9" is not doing anything. What should we do?
Thank you in advance.

On Wed, 30 Aug 2006 19:36:13 -0400
Forte Agent <robertch@newscat.com> wrote:

> We have HP/UX PA/RISC 11.11. Currently we see about 10 processes in
> defunct process. "kill -9" is not doing anything. What should we do?

Zombie ("defunct" in ps) processes are caused by programs that are
forking but do not call wait() or waitpid(). You cannot kill such
processes, as they aren't running. The only resource they use is a slot
in the process table. They will disappear when the parent process
terminates (they are inherited by init who _will_ wait for them).

The solution is to fix the program.

--
Stefaan A Eeckels
--
The only statistics you can trust are those you falsified yourself.
-- Winston Churchill