Defunct messages and spawned processes

[Randolph J. Herber, CD/DCD/SP, x2966]

I attempted to respond to the original poster via e-mail.  It was returned to
me as undeliverable mail.  Because I think that some readers of this mailing
list may find the answer useful, I am sending it to mailing list.

Randolph J. Herber,
herber at fnalf.fnal.gov (also the acting FNAL postmaster).

+From:	SMTP%"Postmaster" 25-FEB-1991 10:08:50.34
+To:	<HERBER>
+CC:	
+Subj:	Undeliverable Mail
+
+Date:     Mon, 25 Feb 1991 10:08:39 CST
+From:     Postmaster at FNALA.FNAL.GOV
+Subject:  Undeliverable Mail
+To:       <HERBER>
+Comment:  Bad address -- <lkestel at louie.udel.edu>
+Comment:  	Address refused by receiver: <lkestel at louie.udel.edu> (550 (USER) Unknown user name in "lkestel at louie.udel.edu")
+
+Start of returned message
+
+  Date:    Mon, 25 Feb 1991 10:08:26 CST
+  From:    HERBER at FNALA.FNAL.GOV (Randolph J. Herber, CD/DCD/SP, x2966)
+  Message-Id: <910225100826.24e07268 at FNALA.FNAL.GOV>
+  Subject: Re: Defunct messages and spawned processes
+  To:      lkestel at louie.udel.edu
+  X-Vmsmail-To: SMTP%"lkestel at louie.udel.edu"
+  
+  Hi!
+  
+  The answer to your first problem is that you have to collect your zombie
+  children's death certificates before they can be laid to their rest.
+  
+  The answer to your second question is that a window will not close until
+  processes that have open file descriptors to it close them.
+  
+  Those were the head lines.  Now the news in detail.
+  
+  In the kernel, there are two structures that are used to maintain a process's
+  context.  The process block is used to maintain the data that must be
+  resident at all times.  The user area is used to maintain the data that can
+  be swapped out or released after the process terminates execution.  When
+  a process terminates, the exit status data is stored into the process block
+  and the user area is released.  The process block is released only when the
+  parent of the process issues a wait(2) or wait3(2) system call to obtain this
+  information.  While a process is in this state, frequently, it is refered to
+  as a "zombie."  Sometimes, this status data is refered to as a "death
+  certificate."  If a parent process dies (terminates) before a child process,
+  the child is sent to the orphanage which is run by init, process 1.  Init
+  waits for the death of its children.  For its natural children, it spawns
+  (gives birth to) new copies of those children as needed.  This is governed
+  by /etc/inittab.  For the orphans, it just circular files the death
+  certificates as the accounting data that is written at the same time is handled
+  by the kernel.
+  
+  The second program in your chain of program inherits any open files from
+  its parent process, the first program in your chain.  What resources are
+  inherited from a parent is documented in fork(2). As the windows are normally
+  opened as stdin, stdout and stderr, these need to be closed by the child
+  to release the window.  You may need to release the control terminal data
+  from the process block as well.  For this I suggest that you research how
+  to write a daemon program.
+  
+  Randy Herber, fnalf.fnal.gov
+
+End of returned message