Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request From: chuck@morgan.com (Chuck Ocheret) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun Subject: Re: Help : cannot be killed Keywords: SunOS Message-ID: <8902221550.AA09091@terminus.Morgan.COM> Date: 6 Mar 89 01:12:26 GMT Sender: usenet@rice.edu Organization: Sun-Spots Lines: 24 Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu Original-Date: Wed, 22 Feb 89 10:50:56 EST X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 182, message 9 of 17 I have been able to remove processes in the past when the scenario is that the process is waiting for an output queue to flush. A short program that flushes the device's queue allows the process to rest in peace. For example for a terminal, an ioctl() call with a TCFLSH command (for termio at least) can flush the offending output queue. The zombie problem occurs very often when testing new comm systems (maybe I'm a sloppy developer) so I keep an "exorcist" program around for just such occasions. I would like to see a general purpose "exorcist" which, given a pid, can determine what device the process is waiting for and take the appropriate action. Chuck Ocheret Morgan Stanely & Co., Inc. 1251 Avenue of the Americas New York, N.Y. 10020 (212)703-4474 chuck@morgan.com [[ When one of our terminal lines got stuck with an process, I ran a program that called ioctl() with TCFLSH (remembering that this sometimes unstuck these beasts). It had no effect. So it doesn't always work. --wnl ]]