Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2014 09:41:33 -0400 From: John Baldwin <jhb@freebsd.org> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Cc: freebsd-hackers <hackers@freebsd.org>, freebsd-stable <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>, Chris H <bsd-lists@bsdforge.com> Subject: Re: Process handlers, and zombies, or preap(1) Message-ID: <201404010941.33741.jhb@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <26dbb84bafaf0114cb75c3fbe060d412.authenticated@ultimatedns.net> References: <26dbb84bafaf0114cb75c3fbe060d412.authenticated@ultimatedns.net>
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On Monday, March 31, 2014 4:06:43 pm Chris H wrote: > Greetings, > I'm evaluating/experimenting on releng_9. The install, and now > custom kernel have noting exotic, or anything out of the ordinary. > top(1), and ps(1) indicate a (1) zombie, or <defunct> process. On > my releng_8 systems, when I occasionally encounter one of these, > they soon disappear (are reaped) from the process table. While I > have not investigated this far enough on both versions to determine > whether the parent process reaped the child on the releng_8 systems, > and the parent on releng_9 is simply an irresponsible parent, eg; > a different parent. Before I do, I was wondering if there was any > specific difference between the 2 versions that might cause better > handling of such situations. While I recognize that resource > starvation is HIGHLY unlikely, except by perhaps a rouge parent > spawning multitudes of zombies. I thought it might be useful for > "housekeeping" to 1) provide a process table housekeeper (zombie > reaper), or 2) create a system utility/command like SunOS/OpenSolaris > has; preap(1). > > http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=preap&manpath=SunOS+5.10 > > Thank you for your time, and consideration. Nothing is different with child processes in 9 vs 8. It is most likely a misbehaving parent (or the parent is stuck or hung). -- John Baldwin
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