killing zombies

[Harris Reavin]

(bug food)

     Unfortunately no unix wizard on the net had a solution for zombie
processes that disable ports and refuse to die from a "kill -9". I got
mail from a number of other system administrators who had the same problem
and asked for the solution if I found one short of rebooting. We discovered
locally a way to drive a stake through a zombie's heart that I did not
mention in the previous article. It is better than a reboot but is still a
lot of trouble. We disconnect the cable from the controller of the affected
port, change the ttys entry to turn off the port, reconnect the cable,
and reedit the ttys file to turn the port on again. This usually works.
I still hope that someone may come up with a better solution that does
not involve crawling around the back of the computer in search of the
proper cable.


-- 
		                        Harris Reavin

UUCP:	{umcp-cs!eneevax || seismo!rlgvax!elsie}!imsvax!harris