Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!sdd.hp.com!hp-pcd!hpfcso!hpfcdc!rer
From: rer@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Rob Robason)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: Sendmail 5.65+IDA
Message-ID: <5570547@hpfcdc.HP.COM>
Date: 11 Dec 90 22:36:14 GMT
References: <1990Dec05.082250.21765@cs.fau.edu>
Organization: HP Fort Collins, Co.
Lines: 7

Processes with pending I/O can become defunct when terminated
abnormally.  I've seen this happen on ptys when the master side process
dies and can't be read from the slave.  If the slave was then killed it
became defunct (hung in exit() somewhere).  I guess there are lots of
other ways this can happen, probably mostly on slow devices.

Rob Robason