Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!ames!oliveb!stratus!cloud9!bob From: bob@cloud9.UUCP (Bob Toxen) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Trouble killing processes in Sy Message-ID: <354@cloud9.UUCP> Date: 6 May 88 01:06:31 GMT References: <13282@brl-adm.ARPA> Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc., Marlboro, MA Lines: 24 Summary: Zombies are already dead ... just like zombies In article <13282@brl-adm.ARPA>, rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) writes: > Technically, no. Zombies are already dead. > Killing a zombie has no effect... Correct. Zombies merely hold the PID until their parents do a wait() for them or until their respective parents die causing them to be inherited by init() (PID 1). They need to wait for the wait() so that the exit() status can be returned to the parent's wait(). > I believe that killing a process merely sets a bit in its signal mask, which > is not looked at until the affected process is rescheduled. Of course, if > the target process has higher priority and is otherwise ready to run, it > should preempt the killing process, no? Correct. Thus sending multiple signals to a process hung in a system call or otherwise not getting cycles doesn't do anything. > (Root Boy) Jim Cottrell > National Bureau of Standards -- Bob Toxen {ucbvax!ihnp4,harvard,cloud9!es}!anvil!cavu!bob Stratus Computer, Marlboro, MA Pilot to Copilot: What's a mountain goat doing way up here in a cloud bank?