brandon@tdi2.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) (12/12/86)
Quoted from <165@hqda-ai.UUCP> ["Re: Zombies ???"], by merlin@hqda-ai.UUCP (David S. Hayes)... (after comments about ZOMBIE procs not being reclaimed by init under 4.2) +--------------- | The preceding was discovered on a VAX running 4.2BSD, as a result | of some problem with emacs. I think Sys V runs the same way, but | I can't be sure, as I don't have a Sys V machine. +--------------- From what I have observed of its behavior, sys5 init spends most of its time in wait(). When wait() returns, it checks the pid against its internal table as loaded from /etc/inittab; if it's not found it ignores it, otherwise it updates /etc/utmp and /etc/wtmp with the exit/termination status and does whatever the "command" field says (respawn, once = don't respawn, etc.). In any case, sys5 has only the standard wait(), rather than multi-optioned and unknown to me wait3(); as a result, when wait() returns, the zombie is gone. (Maybe BSD init is using a wait3() option to keep the zombie around after getting the exit status, then forgetting to issue another wait3() to clean it up afterward? --if wait3() can be made to work this way. How would I know? The one BSD system I have access to lacks man pages [grrr].) ++Brandon -- ``for is he not of the Children of Luthien? Never shall that line fail, though the years may lengthen beyond count.'' --J. R. R. Tolkien Brandon S. Allbery UUCP: cbatt!cwruecmp!ncoast!tdi2!brandon Tridelta Industries, Inc. CSNET: ncoast!allbery@Case 7350 Corporate Blvd. INTERNET: ncoast!allbery%Case.CSNET@relay.CS.NET Mentor, Ohio 44060 PHONE: +1 216 255 1080 (home) +1 216 974 9210