[comp.unix.aix] Why don't processes kill when disconnected

fredrick@acd.acd.ucar.edu (Tim Fredrick) (03/12/91)

I hope this is something simple.  But when a terminal sessions is terminated
abnormally (power down, telnet disconnect, etc.) many processes stay in
the process tables.  This is also true when you press CTRL-SHIFT-BACKSPACE
in AIXWindows -- some X processes will stay in the process table as seen
by "ps -efgaux".

Some processes (like the game nethack) really need to get a "kill -HUP"
signal during these conditions so they can do error recovery.  Has anyone
else experienced this?  Is this a bug or a procedural problem?  Any insight
would be tremendously appreciated.  Thanks.  --Tim

bengsig@dk.oracle.com (Bjorn Engsig) (03/13/91)

Article <10571@ncar.ucar.edu> by fredrick@acd.acd.ucar.edu (Tim Fredrick) says:
|
|I hope this is something simple.  But when a terminal sessions is terminated
|abnormally (power down, telnet disconnect, etc.) many processes stay in
|the process tables.
Did you have a look at stty settings, in particular 'stty hupcl -clocal' could
be useful (hangup on last close, and not connected local).
-- 
Bjorn Engsig, ORACLE Corporation, E-mail: bengsig@oracle.com, bengsig@oracle.nl

mcguire@math.uiowa.edu (Charlie McGuire) (03/13/91)

In article <10571@ncar.ucar.edu>, fredrick@acd.acd.ucar.edu (Tim
Fredrick) writes:
|> 
|> I hope this is something simple.  But when a terminal sessions is terminated
|> abnormally (power down, telnet disconnect, etc.) many processes stay in
|> the process tables.  This is also true when you press CTRL-SHIFT-BACKSPACE
|> in AIXWindows -- some X processes will stay in the process table as seen
|> by "ps -efgau .....

Dealing with killing these things is a daily effort for me, and a real pain
in the neck. I have no idea why it behaves this way. At the moment I have 
enough to do without IBM putting it on my back to demonstrate how to reproduce
it. (Which is why I haven't called it in.) As often as it happens here, I find
it hard to believe someone at IBM hasn't noticed it. 


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* Charlie McGuire                    | INTERNET: mcguire@math.uiowa.edu   *
* Systems Programmer                 |           mcguire@cs.uiowa.edu     *
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***************************************************************************

root@acd.uucp (03/14/91)

Tim Fredrick (me!) writes:
>|> 
>|> I hope this is something simple.  But when a terminal sessions is terminated
>|> abnormally (power down, telnet disconnect, etc.) many processes stay in
>|> the process tables.  This is also true when you press CTRL-SHIFT-BACKSPACE
>|> in AIXWindows -- some X processes will stay in the process table as seen
>|> by "ps -efgau .....

Some have speculated to me that this is a problem with /bin/csh.  One person
wrote to say that the problem has been fixed with AIX3.1.5 which was
announced and scheduled to ship March 22.  Until then I guess we get to
keep killing processes by hand -- I haven't tried to run processes under
any of the other shells to see if we have a similar problem.  Thanks.  --Tim

jjs@heart.austin.ibm.com (Jim Shaffer) (03/15/91)

In article <10602@ncar.ucar.edu> root@acd.uucp writes:
>Some have speculated to me that this is a problem with /bin/csh.  One person
>wrote to say that the problem has been fixed with AIX3.1.5 which was
>announced and scheduled to ship March 22.  Until then I guess we get to
>keep killing processes by hand -- I haven't tried to run processes under
>any of the other shells to see if we have a similar problem.  Thanks.  --Tim

As far as I know this is a csh problem only.  The problem with csh
was that it didn't kill foreground children when it received a
SIGHUP.  It seems to be fixed in 3.1.5.

Jim Shaffer
cs.utexas.edu!ibmchs!auschs!morse.austin.ibm.com!jjs

"Don't tell me I'm burning the candle at both ends -- tell me where to
get more wax!!"