Bob Crandell wrote: >Hi, >I have a server with a growing number of these: >20344 ? Z 0:00 [sh <defunct>] >20354 ? Z 0:00 [sh <defunct>] >20355 ? Z 0:00 [sh <defunct>] >20363 ? Z 0:00 [sh <defunct>] > >How do I get rid if them? How do I find out what's causing them? >-- >Bob Crandell >Assured Computing >When you need to be sure. >Cell 541-914-3985 >FAX 240-371-7237 >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >www.assuredcomp.com >Eugene, Or. 97402 > > These are zombie processes, they always get created but you usually don't see them because they are cleaned up by their parents. In your case you have some software that is creating child processes, and not waiting around for them to die. They are hard to track down, they don't usually cause problems, but if there are too many of them they can fill up for process table and you won't be able to start any more processes. Usually the only way to get rid of them is to reboot.
As far as tracking down the offending software, you might see of there are any more blocks of PIDs that correspond to sh (non zombie), and take a look at the parent's PID. What software are you running that would be spawning sh? I guess there are probably a lot of things that would...sorry I can't be more helpful here. Kahli
