How do I kill a defunct sh process?

[lingenfr]

ps -e gives:

9351 ? 00:00:00 sh <defunct>

I can't seem to kill it. I have tried 9, 15, killall but it will not die. It is like the terminator. Is there are way to kill defunct processes? Thanks.

[Rog131]

Re: How do I kill a defunct sh process?

Maybe

sudo kill <pid>

helps ?


Killing processes:
Ksysguard
Press: Ctrl+Esc -> choose prosess -> press kill
or
K>System>ksysguard
or
Press Alt+F2 -> type ksysguard

More:
Controlling runaway processes on Linux
http://rudd-o.com/archives/2007/08/0...sses-on-linux/

[lingenfr]

Re: How do I kill a defunct sh process?

I tried the first two, no joy. I read the information in the third. Not sure it applies to this case as there is no application window, but I will give it a shot. Thanks.

[SheeEttin]

Re: How do I kill a defunct sh process?

From the ps man page:

Processes marked <defunct> are dead processes (so-called "zombies") that
remain because their parent has not destroyed them properly. These processes
will be destroyed by init(8) if the parent process exits.

If that doesn't happen for whatever reason and sending it various signals doesn't help...
Well, unless you really need it gone, it's safe to leave it there.

[lingenfr]

Re: How do I kill a defunct sh process?

Those defunct processes are usually accompanied by slowness and other wackiness. Is there a command that will allow me to identify the parent process?

[SheeEttin]

Re: How do I kill a defunct sh process?

"ps -ejH" prints processes in a tree. You can also hit Ctrl+Escape to bring up KDE System Guard with the process table, which is a nice GUI.

By the way, are you sure it's the defunct process that's causing this?

[lingenfr]

Re: How do I kill a defunct sh process?

No, they may not even be related, but I will try this command next time and find out. thanks.