Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!bu-cs!buengc!bph
From: bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Getting rid of a <defunct> process
Message-ID: <2110@buengc.BU.EDU>
Date: 13 Feb 89 00:11:29 GMT
References: <102@avatar.UUCP> <27866@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Reply-To: bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton)
Followup-To: comp.unix.questions
Distribution: usa
Organization: Boston Univ. Col. of Eng.
Lines: 21

In article <27866@bu-cs.BU.EDU> madd@bu-it.bu.edu (Jim Frost) writes:
>
><defunct> processes (also called "zombies") definitely take up process
>table entries and probably take up many more resources.  Exactly what
>a zombie process holds depends on the operating system implementation.

You betcha!  We were getting a bit bogged-down on our uVAX, with a
no-load load of 1.0.  Then somebody who knew suggested doing a shutdown
-r to kill the zombies.  Thirty minutes and one reboot later (it's a
_big_ uVAX), the no-load load was at 0.03.  Yow.  Speeds up everything
from logins to buggy Spice.

The word is apparently to do a shutdown every few weeks to kill
all the zombies.

				--Blair
				  "That, or wear garlic around
				   your neck...no, that's how
				   you ward off VMS...to kill zombies
				   you need silver bullets...er...
				   where's the F.M.?"