From owner-freebsd-bugs Mon Apr 20 01:55:02 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id BAA11843 for freebsd-bugs-outgoing; Mon, 20 Apr 1998 01:55:02 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from itesec.hsc.fr (root@itesec.hsc.fr [192.70.106.33]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id IAA11830 for ; Mon, 20 Apr 1998 08:54:57 GMT (envelope-from pb@hsc.fr) Received: from mars.hsc.fr (pb@mars.hsc.fr [192.70.106.44]) by itesec.hsc.fr (8.8.8/8.8.5/itesec-1.12-nospam) with ESMTP id KAA16092; Mon, 20 Apr 1998 10:54:51 +0200 (MET DST) Received: (from pb@localhost) by mars.hsc.fr (8.8.5/8.8.5/pb-19970301) id KAA11549; Mon, 20 Apr 1998 10:54:47 +0200 (MET DST) Message-ID: <19980420105446.AG32944@mars.hsc.fr> Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 10:54:46 +0200 From: pb@fasterix.frmug.org (Pierre Beyssac) To: phk@critter.freebsd.dk (Poul-Henning Kamp) Cc: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: kern/5236 References: <19980420011335.SG57732@@> <16263.893051669@critter.freebsd.dk> X-Mailer: Mutt 0.59.1e Mime-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <16263.893051669@critter.freebsd.dk>; from Poul-Henning Kamp on Apr 20, 1998 07:54:29 +0200 Sender: owner-freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org According to Poul-Henning Kamp: > Well, first: zombies are signs of programming errors in the parent > process. System utilities (and kernel) shouldn't depend on correct user processes programming to work reliably. > Second: ps doesn't give an atomic snapshot of the system, > so it isn't an accurate view of system resources. Even though they are supposed to be updated atomically, the problem is most certainly with kernel tables, ps only reflects this. I assume top would, too, but I haven't tried it (hence the filing of my PR in the "kern" category). > Third: since it > isn't scheduled none of those awful things will happen. Should I understand that you would estimate the problem unsolved if the system wasted in the name of zombies processes all the CPU ps says they use ? By the way, what makes you think it doesn't since you don't rely on ps ? :-) > Fourth: If > you had included a patch for ps things would probably happen :-) Thanks, I take this to mean there's a tiny possibility my PR is not totally useless :-), so I'll give it a try. -- Pierre Beyssac pb@fasterix.frmug.org pb@fasterix.freenix.org {Free,Net,Open}BSD, Linux : il y a moins bien, mais c'est plus cher Free domains: http://www.eu.org/ or mail dns-manager@EU.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-bugs" in the body of the message