Sponsored Content
Full Discussion: <DEFUNCT> Processes
Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers <DEFUNCT> Processes Post 1259 by 98_1LE on Tuesday 20th of February 2001 01:12:36 PM
Old 02-20-2001
Defunct processes (also called zombie processes) are processes which were not cleaned up by their parent, and the parent process has died. They cannot be killed without a reboot. I don't worry too much about them.

Edit - I missed the title first time. This was my original; response.
Can you paste what you are seeing? If it is;
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD

UID=User ID the process is running as (typically who started the process)
PID=Process ID of this process (every process has a unique ID)
PPID=Parent process which spawned this process
C=??? I think it has something to do with priority
STIME=When the proess was spawned
TTY=Terminal process is attached to
TIME=Cumulative processor time used by this process
CMD=Actual command that is running

[Edited by 98_1LE on 02-20-2001 at 01:15 PM]
 

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Programming

defunct process!!

how can i assure that daemon process which is being run as init child,can be removed immediately from system when it goes defunct or to avoid daemon process becoming defunt? (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: rish2005
5 Replies

2. Solaris

how do I kill defunct processes?

mqm 17700 16815 0 0:00 <defunct> kill -9 does not work, even as root (10 Replies)
Discussion started by: csaunders
10 Replies

3. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Question about defunct processes

Hey guys/gals. I am new to the site and fairly new to Unix/Linux. I have a master netbackup server (solaris) that I get pinged on occasionally regarding defunct processes. (Usually over 50 or so of them.) I know what a defunct process is, but what is it a product of? Just plain sloppy code? (From... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: EMCSANMAN
1 Replies

4. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

whats the difference between zombie orpha and defunct processes

can some one please explain zombie orphan defunct and how they r related (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: pbsrinivas
3 Replies

5. AIX

Defunct Processes

Hi, Can any one help me to get rid of defunct process on UNIX IBM AIX box. These processes started when the system was rebooted almost after 1 1/2 years. Once one defunct process is created then all the user ids get infected and in turn creates numerous defunct processes. We have tried... (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: trokia88
6 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

Abnormal behaviour of Defunct processes.

Hi All, Sorry to bother you all if my query is silly. Can you please clarify my doubts on defunct processes. Actually coming to the scenario, i have a server which is under cluster environment. Server B is having problems with the defunct process. There was a cron scheduled on Server B which... (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: reddybs
0 Replies

7. HP-UX

Defunct processes are getting generated

Dear Sir / Madam, We have two socket programs which are running in background. These two socket programs are creating defunct processes in HP-UX which were not happening in Compaq True64 UNIX. What is the root cause of these defunct processes and how can we correct it? Your suggestion will be... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: kcsahoo
3 Replies

8. UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

defunct processes?

HiI had a tool fail recently, on analysis I found it was cleaning up orphaned directories that had been created by specific processes that had died for some reason, thus failing to clean up after themselves.The directories were of the form /dir.pid. The tool would look to see if any instances of... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: steadyonabix
2 Replies

9. HP-UX

Defunct Processes; Maximum Process

I'd like to remove this defunct processes without rebooting. Or, I could remove this defuncts when the maximum allowable process is nearly reached, then send an email to the user/team. How can I determine the maximum allowable process that a server can handle? Any thoughts? Jin@PRODUCTION: >... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: Jin_
3 Replies

10. HP-UX

How to clear defunct processes??

How to find out and clear the 'defunct' processes at OS and DB level ..?? (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: SurajR
6 Replies
ps(1B)						     SunOS/BSD Compatibility Package Commands						    ps(1B)

NAME
ps - display the status of current processes SYNOPSIS
/usr/ucb/ps [-aceglnrSuUvwx] [-t term] [num] DESCRIPTION
The ps command displays information about processes. Normally, only those processes that are running with your effective user ID and are attached to a controlling terminal (see termio(7I)) are shown. Additional categories of processes can be added to the display using vari- ous options. In particular, the -a option allows you to include processes that are not owned by you (that do not have your user ID), and the -x option allows you to include processes without controlling terminals. When you specify both -a and -x, you get processes owned by anyone, with or without a controlling terminal. The -r option restricts the list of processes printed to running and runnable processes. ps displays in tabular form the process ID, under PID; the controlling terminal (if any), under TT; the cpu time used by the process so far, including both user and system time, under TIME; the state of the process, under S; and finally, an indication of the COMMAND that is running. The state is given by a single letter from the following: O Process is running on a processor. S Sleeping. Process is waiting for an event to complete. R Runnable. Process is on run queue. Z Zombie state. Process terminated and parent not waiting. T Traced. Process stopped by a signal because parent is tracing it. OPTIONS
The following options must all be combined to form the first argument: -a Includes information about processes owned by others. -c Displays the command name rather than the command arguments. -e Displays the environment as well as the arguments to the command. -g Displays all processes. Without this option, ps only prints interesting processes. Processes are deemed to be uninteresting if they are process group leaders. This normally eliminates top-level command interpreters and processes waiting for users to login on free terminals. -l Displays a long listing, with fields F, PPID, CP, PRI, NI, SZ, RSS, and WCHAN as described below. -n Produces numerical output for some fields. In a user listing, the USER field is replaced by a UID field. -r Restricts output to running and runnable processes. -S Displays accumulated CPU time used by this process and all of its reaped children. -t term Lists only process data associated with the terminal, term. Terminal identifiers may be specified in one of two forms: the device's file name (for example, tty04 or term/14 ) or, if the device's file name starts with tty, just the digit identifier (for example, 04). -u Displays user-oriented output. This includes fields USER, %CPU, %MEM, SZ, RSS, and START as described below. -U Obsolete. This option no longer has any effect. It causes ps to exit without printing the process listing. -v Displays a version of the output containing virtual memory. This includes fields SIZE, %CPU, %MEM, and RSS, described below. -w Uses a wide output format, that is, 132 columns rather than 80. If the option letter is repeated, that is, -ww, this option uses arbitrarily wide output. This information is used to decide how much of long commands to print. Note: The wide output option can be viewed only by a superuser or the user who owns the process. -x Includes processes with no controlling terminal. num A process number may be given, in which case the output is restricted to that process. This option must be supplied last. DISPLAY FORMATS
Fields that are not common to all output formats: USER Name of the owner of the process. %CPU CPU use of the process. This is a decaying average over up to a minute of previous (real) time. NI Process scheduling increment (see getpriority(3C) and nice(3UCB)). SIZE The total size of the process in virtual memory, including all mapped files and devices, in kilobyte units. SZ Same as SIZE. RSS Real memory (resident set) size of the process, in kilobyte units. UID Numerical user-ID of process owner. PPID Numerical ID of parent of process. CP Short-term CPU utilization factor (used in scheduling). PRI The priority of the process (higher numbers mean lower priority). START The starting time of the process, given in hours, minutes, and seconds. A process begun more than 24 hours before the ps inquiry is executed is given in months and days. WCHAN The address of an event for which the process is sleeping (if blank, the process is running). %MEM The ratio of the process's resident set size to the physical memory on the machine, expressed as a percentage. F Flags (hexadecimal and additive) associated with the process. These flags are available for historical purposes; no meaning should be currently ascribed to them. A process that has exited and has a parent, but has not yet been waited for by the parent, is marked <defunct>; otherwise, ps tries to determine the command name and arguments given when the process was created by examining the user block. FILES
/dev/tty* /etc/passwd UID information supplier ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWscpu | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
kill(1), ps(1), whodo(1M), getpriority(3C), nice(3UCB), proc(4), attributes(5), termio(7I) NOTES
Things can change while ps is running. The picture ps gives is only a close approximation to the current state. Some data printed for defunct processes is irrelevant. SunOS 5.11 26 May 2006 ps(1B)
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 05:03 PM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy