Linux stopped processes
 

Hullo, i would really need your help, of recent my server load has been really high:
and as you can see there are 141 stopped processes, which i think are the cause, though i execute it returns nothing, how do i kill the stopped processes or how do i list them? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Show the rest of the top output ie include the process table.
You may find this useful http://slack-linux.blogspot.com.au/2...ate-codes.html
You can use it to figure out what is going on; don't just start killing procs, you'll damage your system/data.

Well, this would be a good time for a reboot... and a good time to take a hard look at the processes you're staring up (if they're "home-brew" anyway). For example, top looks like this with only me doing anything right now:
(and I need to go find that zomibe and get it dealt with ... OK found it, it's hp-update, deal with it later).

The top column you're interested in is the one labeled S (Process Status); the status can be one of

• 'D' = uninterruptible sleep
• 'R' = running
• 'S' = sleeping
• 'T' = traced or stopped
• 'Z' = zombie

Note that the first column in a top display is PID; you can use that PID with ps -ef | grep PID (where "PID" is the PID number).

There's a number of ways you can get zombies (a child process that hasn't died when the parent exits for one). Google for "linux zombie process" for a lot of reference material. You can use the ps and grep utilities to find them; e.g.,
shows me the zombie sitting on my system (you're going to see a lot more).

That's why the "home built" remark earlier -- if you've got software that uses "fork and exec" to launch a child process you need to take a look at making sure that when the parent dies that the child dies too. There are processes where the parent on purpose launches a child then dies without killing the child (that's what daemons do) and you need to look at those and make sure that there is some sort of error trap in the child that will cause it to die in a daemon.

On the other hand, if you're running third party applications, you may need to look into those as well (you should not have zombies at all and you should not have anywhere near that number of stopped processes). Those stopped processes may be waiting for some unavailable resource and that will take some looking.

Might be a good idea to reboot (which will clear out all that stuff) and review what daemons you're starting, what applications are starting, what users are doing (like leaving an application running when they leave for the day and not logging out). You know, reboot it and keep an eye on things, can't hurt, might help.

Hope this helps some.

...but use the right ps output modifiers instead:

ps -ef | grep defunct
ps ax -eos,state,pid,ppid,args|egrep "^(Z|X|T)"

Ok i've killed processes under and they have dropped to 137 processes, how do i kill processes under:

Thanks guys, i finally cleared the zombies, wouldn't have done with out you.