<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Cameron Simpson wrote: <blockquote cite="mid:20080626023446.GA10802@cskk.homeip.net" type="cite"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; "> <meta name="Generator" content="MS Exchange Server version 6.0.6619.12"> <title>Re: How to find and clear zombie processes w/o rebooting?</title>  On 25Jun2008 19:08, Daniel B. Thurman <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:dant@cdkkt.com"><dant@cdkkt.com></a> wrote: > Looks like the parent is related to gdm-binary? > Strange about my comment previously - hit 'reset' :D > Wonder what is going on with Xsession and why it died. > > This is what I found: > =================== > root 3704 0.0 0.1 18416 2096 ? Ss Jun24 0:00 /usr/sbin/gdm-binary -nodaemon > root 3797 0.0 0.0 17896 2064 ? S Jun24 0:00 \_ /usr/sbin/gdm-binary -nodaemon > root 3801 2.4 2.2 63512 47528 tty7 Ss+ Jun24 40:15 \_ /usr/bin/X :0 -br -audit 0 -auth /var/gdm/:0.Xauth -nolisten tcp vt7 > dant 3854 0.0 0.1 33768 4104 ? Ssl Jun24 0:01 \_ /usr/bin/gnome-session > dant 3902 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z Jun24 0:00 \_ [Xsession] <defunct> > dant 3956 0.0 0.0 6328 252 ? Ss Jun24 0:00 \_ /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients [...] Ok, this mean gnome-session forked a run of Xsession and didn't wait for it. Xsession has exited, but whatever gnome-session really waits for (typically the window manager) has not yet exited. This is really common in xsession/xinitrc type shell scripts. You see people write their sessions like this: xterm & xclock & window-manager So, that is a shell script. It kicks off a terminal, a clock and a window manager. It waits for that last. When the window manager exits (usually from the quit/logout menu item), the session ends, and gdm/xdm kills the X server and starts a new server for a new login prompt. Now.. if the terminal or clock exit, they will be zombies. The script is may be waiting only for the window manager, expecially if the last line goes: exec window-manager because the window manager will _replace_ the script, and thus be the parent of the terminal and clock, but it will not be waiting for them. It is normally desirable to run "tools" (the terminal, the clock, nautilus etc) as children of a throw away subshell, thus: ( xterm & xclock & ) exec window manager That way the tools are forked off from a subshell, the subshell exits, and the children get inherited by init (_not_ the top shell!) whose purpose in life is to catch such children and reap them, to prevent them becoming zombies. So: - it is really a problem in gnome-session - it isn't important, and is not related to your resource problems </blockquote> Well! Thanks for the explanation! I guess I will just reboot - problem solved! Thanks alot! Dan </body> </html>