Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!shadooby!oxtrap!teemc!rphroy!edsews!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
From: tneff@bfmny0.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.sys5
Subject: vi(1) bug - defunct processes
Summary: Filter (!) operator leaves a defunct process every time
Message-ID: <14562@bfmny0.UUCP>
Date: 18 Aug 89 18:22:45 GMT
Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Organization: TSTS (Tri-State Transsubstantiation Services)
Lines: 19

To heck with mailx(1), this is worse.  Why am I just noticing these
things now?

I have:
	AT&T UNIX System V/386 3.2.1
	/usr/bin/vi.sl 1.1 3.2 06/24/88 40949 AT&T-SF

The symptom:  Every time you pass a piece of an open file through a
filter (e.g., 'spell', 'filter' etc) using the ! <cursor-move> operator,
'vi' leaves the process it used hanging <defunct> in the system,
not removed.  After enough filter operations, there are no free
processes in the system and things grind to a halt.  The processes
cannot be killed while 'vi' is still running, even with signal 9 from
root.  Only exiting vi fixes it.

What a damned annoyance.  Is this known and TBFIAFR?
-- 
"We walked on the moon --	((	Tom Neff
	you be polite"		 )) 	tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET