Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 23 Jan 2002 05:05:42 +0100
From:      Cliff Sarginson <cliff@raggedclown.net>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: URGENT: kill -9 doesn't work
Message-ID:  <20020123040542.GG1345@raggedclown.net>
In-Reply-To: <20020123034649.GA92597@moo.holy.cow>
References:  <20020122175821.U12282-100000@angui.sh> <20020123034649.GA92597@moo.holy.cow>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 10:46:49PM -0500, parv wrote:
> in message <20020122175821.U12282-100000@angui.sh>, 
> wrote Will Froning thusly...
> >
> > Does anyone know how to kill a process that doesn't respond to kill
> > -9?
> > 
> > It keeps dumping core to a nfs server and quickly filling it up.  I
> > cannot reboot the machine.  Any hints?
> 
> i don't know if it was you who had posted similar problem on
> comp.unix.(admin|questions).  in any case, SIGSEGV was suggested
> along w/ possible reason of SIGKILL not working.
> 

There are a few cases where this happens. I see Greg's explanation in
another posting. It can also happen if a process gets into an
uninterruptible sleep state, waiting for something that will never
happen. This is a rather famous Unix feature.. :)
The thing about signal 9 is that no process can handle or ignore it
(except process 1, init, but that is a special case). Unfortunately
it still has to be delivered to take effect.

In your case there may be another explanation. You don't say what the
process is but perhaps it is one that when it dies, it's death is
detected by it's parent and automatically restarted. If it is
core-dumping then you have a vicious circle. Is the PID changing ?
If so then it is not that the process is unkillable, it is that
something is restarting it.

-- 
Regards
Cliff



To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20020123040542.GG1345>