<exiting> a way to clear without rebooting

[Brian Colfer]

root%helios.UCSC.EDU at ucscc.ucsc.edu (De Clarke (Systems Mgr)):
> 1) Has anyone managed to kill off user processes that go <exiting>?
>...
> [[ We've been discussing that quite a bit lately.  I don't think there is
> a *safe* way to do it, but maybe someone will prove me wrong... --wnl ]]

I clear the exiting problem by sending an eof to the port.  For
example:
  PID TT STAT  TIME COMMAND
22796 00 Z     0:02 <exiting>

cat > /dev/tty00
^D

Works for me every time!

Brian  : UC San Francisco       :...!{ucbvax,uunet}!daedalus.ucsf.edu!brianc 
Colfer : Dept. of Lab. Medicine : brianc at daedalus.ucsf.edu 
       : PH. 415-476-2325       : BRIANC at UCSFCCA.BITNET

[[ I haven't had a chance to try the EOF solution for Suns.  I recall when
this problem used to occur under older versions of Berkeley Unix that
nothing could get rid of them.  What I believe cannot be "safely" done
(what I meant by my quoted mark) is that there is no safe way to get rid
of <exiting> processes in the general case (that is, regardless of the
reason they are stuck).  But.....whatever works.  --wnl ]]