RE: <defunct> process in AIX

A defunct or zombie process has already ended. There is no way to send it a signal to clean it up.

Signals (kill -9 included) are only acted on when a process either exits from executing its time slice or is about to get another CPU time slice. Since a zombie is no longer a candidate for execution it will never "see" the signal.

The problem is usually caused by a parent process that is not coded properly. Zombies are removed by a program executing the "wait" system routine. If the parent process has ended, then the children are inherited by init and cleaned up. This is called "reaping" and init is the grim reaper.

If the parent process has ended then it is a bug with the OS. AIX had this problem five years ago. Perhaps it was not fixed properly.

Brian

> -----Original Message-----
> From: root_at_fatcity.com [mailto:root_at_fatcity.com]On Behalf Of Rahul
> Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 5:06 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: <defunct> process in AIX
>
>
> List,
> we are running oracle 816 on AIX H70, we use the tty port to communicate
> with a telephone switch, program written in 'C' reads from Oracle and
> writes the command to the '/dev/tty1' .
>
> the problem is that sometimes the port hangs and we find a zombie <defuct>
> process hanging in memory...... it does not allow to drop and recreate the
> port also..
> says... "specified device is busy..."
>
> is there any way to clear the <defunct> process ? and/or drop/recreate the
> TTY port ??
>
> previously we used to re-boot the machine, but this is not an option now..
>
> Regards
>
> Rahul
>
>
>
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
> --
> Author: Rahul
> INET: rahul_at_ratelindo.co.id
>
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Received on Wed Jan 10 2001 - 10:07:45 CST