How do you get rid of <defunct> processes? (AT&T UNIXpc)

[Paul J. Condie]

In article <260 at icus.UUCP> lenny at icus.UUCP (Lenny Tropiano) writes:
>I don't know how I do it, but sometimes a process terminates abnormally
>and it turns into a ZOMBIE <defunct> process.
>
>  F S   UID   PID  PPID  C PRI NI ADR SZ:RSZ   WCHAN TTY  TIME COMD
>  1 Z     0 14275 14273240  80  0                     <defunct>
>  1 S     0 14273     1  3  21  0  61 22:  0   4157c  w1  0:00 sh
>
>Now I've tried the usual:
>
>$ kill -9 14273 14275
>
>They don't want to die!  Unfortunately they'll stay there until I reboot,
>also it shows up in the "[w]" Windows Manager as if it still exists.  I
>toggle to that window and all I get is the WORKING ICON.  And the screen
>that was there when I exited... But it doesn't want to die, and I don't
>want to reboot.  Is there an easier solution?   And how do they get
>created in the first place?

A process goes through basically three stages startup, run, and 
shutdown (defunct).  The defunct stage is after the program has received
the kill/quit signal (which is why you kill has no effect) and is trying
to close all open files (stdin, ... etc) before it is removed from the
process table.  If you happen to do a ps after the program is killed but
before all clean is done you will see <defunct>.  I have seen your
problem before on a megaframe (which is also a convergent product).
The convergent people told me at the time to ignore the defuncts on the 
megaframe that it would case no harm ( and it didn't).  
In your case it would be anoying if they are still in your "W" window.
Are you running multiple gettys on the console?
Does it only happen with one program?
Does it only happen to programs that use the screen?