Unix newb. Is there a single command to kill all <defunct> processes? Google yields no help.

4/30/2008 12:44:39 PM

i'm sure some combination of grep and ps and | and > and all that shit could do it

4/30/2008 12:46:54 PM

Thanks but

Quote :

"Unix newb"

4/30/2008 12:48:46 PM

yeah, i saw. i'm a "unix intermediate", but don't know enough to put together a command like that

4/30/2008 12:49:44 PM

Is this the same thing as killing background processes? Are you trying to "kill" all of them?

4/30/2008 1:03:21 PM

init 6

4/30/2008 1:04:35 PM

^ ha

[Edited on April 30, 2008 at 1:08 PM. Reason : that's like (alt+f4)²]

4/30/2008 1:08:11 PM

You can't "kill" <defunct> processes. They're zombie'd and they're called that because well you can't kill zombies.

They'll be around until you reboot - sry


Oh btw they stick around so you can debug where they come from.
Something is probably missing and ignoring a SIGCHLD or dying prematurely.

[Edited on April 30, 2008 at 1:47 PM. Reason : df]

4/30/2008 1:46:51 PM

killall -9 httpd

substitute httpd for the process.

ps -ef

or ps -ef | grep "something"

substitute the word something for the process

4/30/2008 8:56:23 PM

apropos is a useful command

4/30/2008 8:58:11 PM