Zombies are taking over my computer
I can see several zombie processes in my computer. How can I get rid of them?
In fact, why does there exist vlc and pidgin zombies? It this a bug in Ubuntu or something I have done?
Thanks!
ps aux |grep Z
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
sammy 3236 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:01 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4028 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4046 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4060 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4841 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 4844 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 6525 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 6529 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 8401 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 13526 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z 09:54 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
vlc pidgin
edited Jul 27 '13 at 7:22
Radu Rădeanu
120k35252328
asked Jul 27 '13 at 7:07
sampiesampie
312
add a comment |
I can see several zombie processes in my computer. How can I get rid of them?
In fact, why does there exist vlc and pidgin zombies? It this a bug in Ubuntu or something I have done?
Thanks!
ps aux |grep Z
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
sammy 3236 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:01 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4028 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4046 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4060 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4841 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 4844 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 6525 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 6529 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 8401 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 13526 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z 09:54 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
vlc pidgin
edited Jul 27 '13 at 7:22
Radu Rădeanu
120k35252328
asked Jul 27 '13 at 7:07
sampiesampie
312
add a comment |
I can see several zombie processes in my computer. How can I get rid of them?
In fact, why does there exist vlc and pidgin zombies? It this a bug in Ubuntu or something I have done?
Thanks!
ps aux |grep Z
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
sammy 3236 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:01 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4028 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4046 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4060 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4841 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 4844 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 6525 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 6529 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 8401 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 13526 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z 09:54 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
vlc pidgin
edited Jul 27 '13 at 7:22
Radu Rădeanu
120k35252328
asked Jul 27 '13 at 7:07
sampiesampie
312
I can see several zombie processes in my computer. How can I get rid of them?
In fact, why does there exist vlc and pidgin zombies? It this a bug in Ubuntu or something I have done?
Thanks!
ps aux |grep Z
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
sammy 3236 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:01 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4028 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4046 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4060 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 4841 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 4844 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 6525 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 6529 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z heinä26 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
sammy 8401 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Zl heinä26 0:00 [vlc] <defunct>
sammy 13526 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? Z 09:54 0:00 [pidgin] <defunct>
vlc pidgin
vlc pidgin
edited Jul 27 '13 at 7:22
Radu Rădeanu
120k35252328
asked Jul 27 '13 at 7:07
sampiesampie
312
edited Jul 27 '13 at 7:22
Radu Rădeanu
120k35252328
asked Jul 27 '13 at 7:07
sampiesampie
312
edited Jul 27 '13 at 7:22
Radu Rădeanu
120k35252328
edited Jul 27 '13 at 7:22
Radu Rădeanu
120k35252328
edited Jul 27 '13 at 7:22
Radu Rădeanu
120k35252328
120k35252328
asked Jul 27 '13 at 7:07
sampiesampie
312
asked Jul 27 '13 at 7:07
sampiesampie
312
asked Jul 27 '13 at 7:07
sampiesampie
312
312
add a comment |
add a comment |
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
I think your answer is integrated in Luis Alvarado's answer:
If you have zombie processes it means those zombies have not been waited for by their parent (look at PPID displayed by
ps -l). You have three choices: Fix the parent process (make it wait); kill the parent; or live with it. Remember that living with it is not so hard because zombies take up little more than one extra line in the output ofps.
[...]Zombies that exist for more than a short period of time typically indicate a bug in the parent program. As with other leaks, the presence of a few zombies isn't worrisome in itself, but may indicate a problem that would grow serious under heavier loads.
To remove zombies from a system, the SIGCHLD signal can be sent to the parent manually, using the kill command. If the parent process still refuses to reap the zombie, the next step would be to remove the parent process. When a process loses its parent, init becomes its new parent. Init periodically executes the wait system call to reap any zombies with init as parent.
See also this post about how can you get rid of zombie processes.
edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23
Community♦
1
answered Jul 27 '13 at 8:02
Radu RădeanuRadu Rădeanu
120k35252328
0 1000 3236 1 20 0 0 0 exit Zl ? 0:01 [vlc] <defunct>
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:39
I am seeing PPID of zombie vlcs being 1 (4th value). Is that indication that the bug is in init process?
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:40
@sampie I dont't think; you can check that there are a lot of processes with PPID=1 that are not zombies:ps axo ppid,comm.
– Radu Rădeanu
Jul 27 '13 at 9:49
How a process can be a zombie if parent is init (1)?
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:58
@sampie I sugest you if you have other questions to use Ask Question button.
– Radu Rădeanu
Jul 27 '13 at 10:05
|
show 1 more comment
At least for pidgin, this seems to be a bug due to problems with going in and out of hibernation:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pidgin/+bug/1245666
The vlc zombies are probably just a coincidence caused by errors in that program.
answered Aug 11 '15 at 20:33
Andrew MaoAndrew Mao
1,01611318
add a comment |
It's definitely not a bug in just Ubuntu since it's happening on Windows 10 as well.
Incidentally, more or less since VLC was no longer able to play various video files with problems, other players could manage.
edited Feb 9 at 14:42
grooveplex
2,21411433
answered Feb 9 at 8:15
Alessandro DrudiAlessandro Drudi
1
add a comment |
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3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
I think your answer is integrated in Luis Alvarado's answer:
If you have zombie processes it means those zombies have not been waited for by their parent (look at PPID displayed by
ps -l). You have three choices: Fix the parent process (make it wait); kill the parent; or live with it. Remember that living with it is not so hard because zombies take up little more than one extra line in the output ofps.
[...]Zombies that exist for more than a short period of time typically indicate a bug in the parent program. As with other leaks, the presence of a few zombies isn't worrisome in itself, but may indicate a problem that would grow serious under heavier loads.
To remove zombies from a system, the SIGCHLD signal can be sent to the parent manually, using the kill command. If the parent process still refuses to reap the zombie, the next step would be to remove the parent process. When a process loses its parent, init becomes its new parent. Init periodically executes the wait system call to reap any zombies with init as parent.
See also this post about how can you get rid of zombie processes.
edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23
Community♦
1
answered Jul 27 '13 at 8:02
Radu RădeanuRadu Rădeanu
120k35252328
0 1000 3236 1 20 0 0 0 exit Zl ? 0:01 [vlc] <defunct>
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:39
I am seeing PPID of zombie vlcs being 1 (4th value). Is that indication that the bug is in init process?
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:40
@sampie I dont't think; you can check that there are a lot of processes with PPID=1 that are not zombies:ps axo ppid,comm.
– Radu Rădeanu
Jul 27 '13 at 9:49
How a process can be a zombie if parent is init (1)?
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:58
@sampie I sugest you if you have other questions to use Ask Question button.
– Radu Rădeanu
Jul 27 '13 at 10:05
|
show 1 more comment
I think your answer is integrated in Luis Alvarado's answer:
If you have zombie processes it means those zombies have not been waited for by their parent (look at PPID displayed by
ps -l). You have three choices: Fix the parent process (make it wait); kill the parent; or live with it. Remember that living with it is not so hard because zombies take up little more than one extra line in the output ofps.
[...]Zombies that exist for more than a short period of time typically indicate a bug in the parent program. As with other leaks, the presence of a few zombies isn't worrisome in itself, but may indicate a problem that would grow serious under heavier loads.
To remove zombies from a system, the SIGCHLD signal can be sent to the parent manually, using the kill command. If the parent process still refuses to reap the zombie, the next step would be to remove the parent process. When a process loses its parent, init becomes its new parent. Init periodically executes the wait system call to reap any zombies with init as parent.
See also this post about how can you get rid of zombie processes.
edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23
Community♦
1
answered Jul 27 '13 at 8:02
Radu RădeanuRadu Rădeanu
120k35252328
0 1000 3236 1 20 0 0 0 exit Zl ? 0:01 [vlc] <defunct>
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:39
I am seeing PPID of zombie vlcs being 1 (4th value). Is that indication that the bug is in init process?
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:40
@sampie I dont't think; you can check that there are a lot of processes with PPID=1 that are not zombies:ps axo ppid,comm.
– Radu Rădeanu
Jul 27 '13 at 9:49
How a process can be a zombie if parent is init (1)?
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:58
@sampie I sugest you if you have other questions to use Ask Question button.
– Radu Rădeanu
Jul 27 '13 at 10:05
|
show 1 more comment
I think your answer is integrated in Luis Alvarado's answer:
If you have zombie processes it means those zombies have not been waited for by their parent (look at PPID displayed by
ps -l). You have three choices: Fix the parent process (make it wait); kill the parent; or live with it. Remember that living with it is not so hard because zombies take up little more than one extra line in the output ofps.
[...]Zombies that exist for more than a short period of time typically indicate a bug in the parent program. As with other leaks, the presence of a few zombies isn't worrisome in itself, but may indicate a problem that would grow serious under heavier loads.
To remove zombies from a system, the SIGCHLD signal can be sent to the parent manually, using the kill command. If the parent process still refuses to reap the zombie, the next step would be to remove the parent process. When a process loses its parent, init becomes its new parent. Init periodically executes the wait system call to reap any zombies with init as parent.
See also this post about how can you get rid of zombie processes.
edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23
Community♦
1
answered Jul 27 '13 at 8:02
Radu RădeanuRadu Rădeanu
120k35252328
I think your answer is integrated in Luis Alvarado's answer:
If you have zombie processes it means those zombies have not been waited for by their parent (look at PPID displayed by
ps -l). You have three choices: Fix the parent process (make it wait); kill the parent; or live with it. Remember that living with it is not so hard because zombies take up little more than one extra line in the output ofps.
[...]Zombies that exist for more than a short period of time typically indicate a bug in the parent program. As with other leaks, the presence of a few zombies isn't worrisome in itself, but may indicate a problem that would grow serious under heavier loads.
To remove zombies from a system, the SIGCHLD signal can be sent to the parent manually, using the kill command. If the parent process still refuses to reap the zombie, the next step would be to remove the parent process. When a process loses its parent, init becomes its new parent. Init periodically executes the wait system call to reap any zombies with init as parent.
See also this post about how can you get rid of zombie processes.
edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23
Community♦
1
answered Jul 27 '13 at 8:02
Radu RădeanuRadu Rădeanu
120k35252328
edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23
Community♦
1
edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23
Community♦
1
edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23
Community♦
1
1
answered Jul 27 '13 at 8:02
Radu RădeanuRadu Rădeanu
120k35252328
answered Jul 27 '13 at 8:02
Radu RădeanuRadu Rădeanu
120k35252328
answered Jul 27 '13 at 8:02
Radu RădeanuRadu Rădeanu
120k35252328
120k35252328
0 1000 3236 1 20 0 0 0 exit Zl ? 0:01 [vlc] <defunct>
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:39
I am seeing PPID of zombie vlcs being 1 (4th value). Is that indication that the bug is in init process?
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:40
@sampie I dont't think; you can check that there are a lot of processes with PPID=1 that are not zombies:ps axo ppid,comm.
– Radu Rădeanu
Jul 27 '13 at 9:49
How a process can be a zombie if parent is init (1)?
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:58
@sampie I sugest you if you have other questions to use Ask Question button.
– Radu Rădeanu
Jul 27 '13 at 10:05
|
show 1 more comment
0 1000 3236 1 20 0 0 0 exit Zl ? 0:01 [vlc] <defunct>
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:39
I am seeing PPID of zombie vlcs being 1 (4th value). Is that indication that the bug is in init process?
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:40
@sampie I dont't think; you can check that there are a lot of processes with PPID=1 that are not zombies:ps axo ppid,comm.
– Radu Rădeanu
Jul 27 '13 at 9:49
How a process can be a zombie if parent is init (1)?
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:58
@sampie I sugest you if you have other questions to use Ask Question button.
– Radu Rădeanu
Jul 27 '13 at 10:05
0 1000 3236 1 20 0 0 0 exit Zl ? 0:01 [vlc] <defunct>
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:39
0 1000 3236 1 20 0 0 0 exit Zl ? 0:01 [vlc] <defunct>
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:39
I am seeing PPID of zombie vlcs being 1 (4th value). Is that indication that the bug is in init process?
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:40
I am seeing PPID of zombie vlcs being 1 (4th value). Is that indication that the bug is in init process?
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:40
@sampie I dont't think; you can check that there are a lot of processes with PPID=1 that are not zombies:
ps axo ppid,comm.– Radu Rădeanu
Jul 27 '13 at 9:49
@sampie I dont't think; you can check that there are a lot of processes with PPID=1 that are not zombies:
ps axo ppid,comm.– Radu Rădeanu
Jul 27 '13 at 9:49
How a process can be a zombie if parent is init (1)?
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:58
How a process can be a zombie if parent is init (1)?
– sampie
Jul 27 '13 at 9:58
@sampie I sugest you if you have other questions to use Ask Question button.
– Radu Rădeanu
Jul 27 '13 at 10:05
@sampie I sugest you if you have other questions to use Ask Question button.
– Radu Rădeanu
Jul 27 '13 at 10:05
|
show 1 more comment
At least for pidgin, this seems to be a bug due to problems with going in and out of hibernation:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pidgin/+bug/1245666
The vlc zombies are probably just a coincidence caused by errors in that program.
answered Aug 11 '15 at 20:33
Andrew MaoAndrew Mao
1,01611318
add a comment |
At least for pidgin, this seems to be a bug due to problems with going in and out of hibernation:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pidgin/+bug/1245666
The vlc zombies are probably just a coincidence caused by errors in that program.
answered Aug 11 '15 at 20:33
Andrew MaoAndrew Mao
1,01611318
add a comment |
At least for pidgin, this seems to be a bug due to problems with going in and out of hibernation:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pidgin/+bug/1245666
The vlc zombies are probably just a coincidence caused by errors in that program.
answered Aug 11 '15 at 20:33
Andrew MaoAndrew Mao
1,01611318
At least for pidgin, this seems to be a bug due to problems with going in and out of hibernation:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pidgin/+bug/1245666
The vlc zombies are probably just a coincidence caused by errors in that program.
answered Aug 11 '15 at 20:33
Andrew MaoAndrew Mao
1,01611318
answered Aug 11 '15 at 20:33
Andrew MaoAndrew Mao
1,01611318
answered Aug 11 '15 at 20:33
Andrew MaoAndrew Mao
1,01611318
answered Aug 11 '15 at 20:33
Andrew MaoAndrew Mao
1,01611318
1,01611318
add a comment |
add a comment |
It's definitely not a bug in just Ubuntu since it's happening on Windows 10 as well.
Incidentally, more or less since VLC was no longer able to play various video files with problems, other players could manage.
edited Feb 9 at 14:42
grooveplex
2,21411433
answered Feb 9 at 8:15
Alessandro DrudiAlessandro Drudi
1
add a comment |
It's definitely not a bug in just Ubuntu since it's happening on Windows 10 as well.
Incidentally, more or less since VLC was no longer able to play various video files with problems, other players could manage.
edited Feb 9 at 14:42
grooveplex
2,21411433
answered Feb 9 at 8:15
Alessandro DrudiAlessandro Drudi
1
add a comment |
It's definitely not a bug in just Ubuntu since it's happening on Windows 10 as well.
Incidentally, more or less since VLC was no longer able to play various video files with problems, other players could manage.
edited Feb 9 at 14:42
grooveplex
2,21411433
answered Feb 9 at 8:15
Alessandro DrudiAlessandro Drudi
1
It's definitely not a bug in just Ubuntu since it's happening on Windows 10 as well.
Incidentally, more or less since VLC was no longer able to play various video files with problems, other players could manage.
edited Feb 9 at 14:42
grooveplex
2,21411433
answered Feb 9 at 8:15
Alessandro DrudiAlessandro Drudi
1
edited Feb 9 at 14:42
grooveplex
2,21411433
edited Feb 9 at 14:42
grooveplex
2,21411433
edited Feb 9 at 14:42
grooveplex
2,21411433
2,21411433
answered Feb 9 at 8:15
Alessandro DrudiAlessandro Drudi
1
answered Feb 9 at 8:15
Alessandro DrudiAlessandro Drudi
1
answered Feb 9 at 8:15
Alessandro DrudiAlessandro Drudi
1
1
add a comment |
add a comment |
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