`who -d' Dead processes
Hello I had a computer (old PC) running at my student house over the holidays and was using it (as I am now) to ssh into and do my normal work etc. Just by accident I discovered the `who -d' command and saw I had a couple of 100 processes listed that way. Also they where using up my pty's. Coz I was scared of running out of pty's I rebooted the system since then. But I get again lots of dead processes. The thing is that afaik these processes should be connected to init at some point and then cleaned up. But the oldest such process was about 28 days old at the time of discovery. This is what made me concerned. If I can list them, can't I clean them up? And why doesn't init do it by itself? Floris -- Debian GNU/Linux -- The power of freedom www.debian.org | www.gnu.org | www.kernel.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: `who -d' Dead processes
In article [EMAIL PROTECTED], Floris Bruynooghe [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I had a computer (old PC) running at my student house over the holidays and was using it (as I am now) to ssh into and do my normal work etc. Just by accident I discovered the `who -d' command and saw I had a couple of 100 processes listed that way. Also they where using up my pty's. Coz I was scared of running out of pty's I rebooted the system since then. But I get again lots of dead processes. Are you sure those dead processes actually exist .. who -d doesn't list dead processes. who -d lists empty slots in the /var/run/utmp file. Mike. -- In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. -- George Orwell. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: `who -d' Dead processes
--- Floris Bruynooghe [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello Hello - I had a computer (old PC) running at my student house over the holidays and was using it (as I am now) to ssh into and do my normal work etc. Just by accident I discovered the `who -d' command and saw I had a couple of 100 processes listed that way. Also they where using up my pty's. Coz I was scared of running out of pty's I rebooted the system since then. But I get again lots of dead processes. You say Dead (I assume state 'D'). The thing is that afaik these processes should be connected to init at some point and then cleaned up. But the oldest such process was about 28 days old at the time of discovery. This is what made me concerned. If I can list them, can't I clean them up? And why doesn't init do it by itself? It's not down to init, it is down to the kernel. But the only way you can clear this up is by killing the parent process of the dead processes (pstree helps here). If this is happening on a regular basis, then the error is something else, _possibly_ hardware. Note that if the parent process is indeed init (which it shouldn't be - it ought to be the shell that you execute the 'who -d' command from), then there is no way of killing that properly. -- Thomas Adam = The Linux Weekend Mechanic -- http://linuxgazette.net TAG Editor -- http://linuxgazette.net shrug We'll just save up your sins, Thomas, and punish you for all of them at once when you get better. The experience will probably kill you. :) -- Benjamin A. Okopnik (Linux Gazette Technical Editor) ___ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
