From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG  Thu Jan 20 10:06:39 2005
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4E73116A4CE
	for <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>;
	Thu, 20 Jan 2005 10:06:39 +0000 (GMT)
Received: from web54002.mail.yahoo.com (web54002.mail.yahoo.com
	[206.190.36.226])
	by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id C3F7C43D45
	for <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>;
	Thu, 20 Jan 2005 10:06:38 +0000 (GMT)
	(envelope-from spamrefuse@yahoo.com)
Received: (qmail 88176 invoked by uid 60001); 20 Jan 2005 10:06:38 -0000
Comment: DomainKeys? See http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws;
	s=s1024; d=yahoo.com;
	b=azpsYoenFhWZN+P49EpxjAo5lzQpr2Ni1aRNm/rDCn4UEyAXb8KHysSfQOG7MFe4ilfoxIqy+U3H/j9tXWvzfCwXtFIovz7wZI40TDPB6acqStAFQ/u5g6hkZ10vJzWMgvzXvXl/vcwx6UmG+D2oBCawD3KclyxdxVAOSoYp6VY=
	;
Message-ID: <20050120100638.88174.qmail@web54002.mail.yahoo.com>
Received: from [147.46.44.181] by web54002.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP;
	Thu, 20 Jan 2005 02:06:38 PST
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 02:06:38 -0800 (PST)
From: spam maps <spamrefuse@yahoo.com>
To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Subject: Re: User's cron job creates zombie process on 5.3
X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1
Precedence: list
List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code
	<freebsd-stable.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable>,
	<mailto:freebsd-stable-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-stable-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable>,
	<mailto:freebsd-stable-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 10:06:39 -0000

Peter Jeremy wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-Jan-19 21:14:26 -0800, spam maps wrote:
> 
>>>	( /usr/bin/ssh -n -f ${tunnel} & )
>>
>>Alas, no success. Still get the <defunct> zombie
>>process.
>>
>>I actually wonder if this is an odd or buggy
>>behaviour of ssh, or is cron making a mistake here?
> 
> 
> The cron daemon (which will have a PPID of 1) forks
> a copy of itself to actually handle the cron job
> (I suspect this is the parent of the zombie that
> you are seeing).  This child process runs
> "/bin/sh -c CRONJOB" (where CRONJOB is the line in
> your crontab) and I suspect this is the zombie you
> are seeing.
> 
> My guess is that your ssh process is holding open
> file descriptors and the cron child process is
> waiting for these descriptors to close before
> wait()ing for the child.  If this is true, then you
> should avoid it with something like:
>  ( /usr/bin/ssh -n -f ${tunnel} >/dev/null 2>&1 & )
> 

BINGO!
That works. Zombie has gone. Thank you.

>>Leaving a zombie process around, means there's a
kind
>>of bug/mistake somewhere, right?
>
> Yes.  But it's not necessarily a bug in FreeBSD :-).

So, after you've given me a complicated solution to
avoid the zombie, can you tell which program is at
error here? Cron, ssh, or FreeBSD?

Rob.


		
__________________________________ 
Do you Yahoo!? 
Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search.
http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250