TOP -- Zombie

shivanrathore · 03-11-2009, 07:12 PM

MY top command linux throws this result : I see one zoobie

top - 06:01:42 up 1 day, 17:13, 1 user, load average: 0.41, 0.24, 0.16
Tasks: 119 total, 2 running, 116 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 6.7%us, 0.8%sy, 0.0%ni, 92.5%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 1025820k total, 990228k used, 35592k free, 170912k buffers
Swap: 2031608k total, 124k used, 2031484k free, 478488k cached

is This any suspecious ? how can i find out ?

unSpawn · 03-11-2009, 07:23 PM

I use this Bash shell function to find out:

Code:

ps_zombie() { 
    /bin/ps ax -eostate,pid,ppid --sort=state 2>/dev/null | grep ^Z | while read zombie pid ppid; do
        echo "Found zombie PID: $pid PPID: $ppid";
    done; }

but of course you can just execute the ps.*done part.

shivanrathore · 03-11-2009, 07:38 PM

i don't understand

.. can you please little elaborate me

unSpawn · 03-11-2009, 07:48 PM

Please be more specific about what needs clarification.

unixfool · 03-11-2009, 08:26 PM

This is a zombie process

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_process

"the child process has died but has not yet been reaped."

IMO, this isn't a security issue or any issue in general.

Give it time and the system will eventually clean up the zombie process (meaning, you won't see it again).

sundialsvcs · 03-11-2009, 11:14 PM

As the Wikipedia article long-windedly describes, when a process terminates, it briefly remains as a "zombie" until (and so that...) its parent can collect status-information from it.

If the parent has died, then the always-running init process serves as the "grim reaper."

You don't need to worry about zombies. At least, not until next Friday (the 13th!).

T74marcell · 03-12-2009, 04:36 AM

It is not unusual to have 1 zombie process around. If you have many more such processes for a longer period around, then there is a problem, but even so the problem is rather (though not necessarily) in the parent process. The parent process does exist by definition, otherwise we wouldn't talk about zombie processes, but rather call them orphaned processes.

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