the process state of "Z" in the ps o/p indicates that its a zombie process.
this happens when a process terminates but its parent process hasn't wait(2)'ed for it to get its termination status.
you can find out the parent process responsible for the zombies: ps -o ppid,pid,stat,comm
> how to get rid of them?
you don't need to do anything. they will disappear when the parent waits for it or else when the parent terminates.
Alternatively, you can try sending SIGCHLD to the parent.
> whats causing them
could be a bug in the program.
Last edited by ephemera; 6th November 2008 at 05:26 PM.
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