How to find and clear zombie processes w/o rebooting?

Daniel B. Thurman dant at cdkkt.com
Thu Jun 26 02:08:51 UTC 2008


Craig White wrote:
>
> On Wed, 2008-06-25 at 18:33 -0700, Daniel B. Thurman wrote:
> > Using F8, I have found that Nautilus sometimes hangs and
> > runs at 100% CPU.  Force killing Nautilus's drive windows
> > was the only way to recover.  I am not sure that force killing
> > this drive window is related to the zombie that I founding using
> > top.
> >
> > I also discovered that my swap was increased to 2GB of 4GB
> > and has stayed there ever since.
> >
> > So before I accuse Nautilus as being the zombie process, how
> > do I locate it using ps or some other tool to find out what is
> > going on and to what process the zombie was?
> >
> > In the same breadth, is there a way to clear zombie processes
> > without being forced to reboot the system which would certainly
> > remove the zombie process and clear the swap space?
> ----
> you have to kill the parent - you can locate the parent process by
> running 'ps auxwwf'
>
> Craig
>
Interesting! 

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
dant      3976  0.3  0.1  53684  3188 ?        Sl   Jun24   
5:01          \_ /usr/bin/pulseaudio --log-target=syslog
dant      3982  0.0  0.0   5216  1300 ?        S    Jun24   
0:00          |   \_ /usr/libexec/pulse/gconf-helper
dant      3986  0.0  0.5  45136 10576 ?        S    Jun24   
0:36          \_ metacity --sm-client-id 
110a010008000120153982800000046910003
dant      3989  0.0  0.7  75252 15236 ?        S    Jun24   
0:09          \_ gnome-panel --sm-config-prefix /gnome-panel-imrZa5/ 
--sm-client-id 110a010008000120153982700000046910001 --screen 0
dant      4013  0.7  0.3  65148  7292 ?        S    Jun24  
12:56          \_ gkrellm --sm-client-id 
110a010008000120794573900000093780003
dant      4026  0.0  0.7 127592 14612 ?        Sl   Jun24   
1:33          \_ gnome-terminal --sm-config-prefix 
/gnome-terminal-1dtJD1/ --sm-client-id 
110a010008000120153989800000046910008 --screen 0 
--window-with-profile-internal-id=Default --show-menubar 
--role=gnome-terminal-5108--2081150439-1201539898 --active --geometry 
80x24+135+141 --title dant at gold:~ --working-directory /home/dant --zoom 
1 --window-with-profile-internal-id=Default --show-menubar 
--role=gnome-terminal-5108-574728165-1201539901 --active --geometry 
80x24+135+550 --title dant at gold:~ --working-directory /home/dant --zoom 
1 --window-with-profile-internal-id=Default --show-menubar 
--role=gnome-terminal-5108-1143529827-1201539901 --active --geometry 
80x24+799+141 --title dant at gold:~ --working-directory /home/dant --zoom 
1 --window-with-profile-internal-id=Default --show-menubar 
--role=gnome-terminal-5108--1131700843-1201539902 --active --geometry 
80x24+799+550 --title dant at gold:~ --working-directory /home/dant --zoom 1
dant      4191  0.0  0.0   2616   628 ?        S    Jun24   
0:00          |   \_ gnome-pty-helper
dant      4192  0.0  0.0   5616  1056 pts/1    Ss   Jun24   
0:00          |   \_ bash
root      5533  0.0  0.0   4716   916 pts/1    S    Jun24   
0:00          |   |   \_ su
root      5539  0.0  0.0   5620  1608 pts/1    S    Jun24   
0:00          |   |       \_ bash
root     23634  0.0  0.0   4016   828 pts/1    S+   18:34   
0:00          |   |           \_ man ps
root     23654  0.0  0.0   4652  1092 pts/1    S+   18:34   
0:00          |   |               \_ sh -c /usr/bin/bzip2 -c -d 
/var/cache/man/cat1/ps.1.bz2 | /usr/bin/less -is
root     23656  0.0  0.0   4372   932 pts/1    S+   18:34   
0:00          |   |                   \_ /usr/bin/less -is
dant      4198  0.0  0.0   5616  2016 pts/2    Ss   Jun24   
0:00          |   \_ bash
root     23690  0.0  0.0   4716  1232 pts/2    S    18:36   
0:00          |   |   \_ su
root     23697  0.0  0.1   5620  2480 pts/2    S    18:36   
0:00          |   |       \_ bash
root     24340  1.0  0.0   4652   980 pts/2    R+   19:02   
0:00          |   |           \_ ps auxwwf
dant      4203  0.0  0.0   5616  2036 pts/3    Ss+  Jun24   
0:00          |   \_ bash
dant      4215  0.0  0.0   5616  1056 pts/4    Ss+  Jun24   
0:00          |   \_ bash
dant      5267  0.0  0.0   5608  1056 pts/6    Ss   Jun24   
0:00          |   \_ bash
root      5329  0.0  0.0   4716   916 pts/6    S    Jun24   
0:00          |   |   \_ su
root      5339  0.0  0.0   5620  1912 pts/6    S+   Jun24   
0:00          |   |       \_ bash
dant     10269  0.0  0.0   5616  1056 pts/5    Ss   Jun24   
0:00          |   \_ bash
root     10328  0.0  0.0   4716   936 pts/5    S    Jun24   
0:00          |       \_ su
root     10335  0.0  0.0   5912  1728 pts/5    S    Jun24   
0:00          |           \_ bash
root     24065  0.0  0.0   3824   528 pts/5    S+   18:51   
0:00          |               \_ tail -f /var/log/messages
dant      4040 19.5 30.2 3125956 624924 ?      Sl   Jun24 
326:57          \_ strigidaemon
dant      4044  0.0  0.1  28888  2504 ?        SNl  Jun24   
0:00          \_ pinot-dbus-daemon
dant      4185  0.0  0.0   3796   372 ?        S    Jun24   
0:00          |   \_ /bin/cat
dant      4046  0.0  0.2  69920  5456 ?        S    Jun24   
0:16          \_ mugshot --no-show-window
dant      4054  0.0  0.2  20480  4796 ?        S    Jun24   
0:00          \_ tracker-applet
dant      4055  0.0  0.1  39268  3696 ?        SNl  Jun24   
0:17          \_ trackerd
dant      4061  0.0  0.0   4148  1792 ?        S    Jun24   
0:00          \_ online-prefs-sync-daemon
dant      4064  0.0  0.4  78908  8976 ?        S    Jun24   
0:00          \_ /usr/bin/python -tt /usr/bin/puplet
dant      4065  0.0  0.2  28192  4588 ?        S    Jun24   
0:00          \_ python /usr/share/system-config-printer/applet.py
dant      4072  0.0  0.2  99360  4148 ?        S    Jun24   
0:00          \_ nm-applet --sm-disable
dant      4078  0.0  0.1  65020  4012 ?        S    Jun24   
0:00          \_ padevchooser
dant      4118  0.0  0.1  17476  3416 ?        S    Jun24   
0:00          \_ /usr/bin/pam-panel-icon --sm-client-id 
110a010008000120153983200000046910006
root      4136  0.0  0.0   1956   580 ?        S    Jun24   
0:04          |   \_ /sbin/pam_timestamp_check -d root
dant     23276  0.5  2.0 142092 42544 ?        S    18:18   
0:15          \_ nautilus --sm-config-prefix /nautilus-vN3JUZ/ 
--sm-client-id 110a010008000120153982700000046910002 --screen 0

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