[plug] defunct process won't die

[Leon Brooks]

Steve Grasso wrote:
> Y..e..s.....but you can clean them up.

>>The only resource it uses is
>> an entry in the process table, so unless you have hundreds of them,
>> dont worry.

> OK. If that's the only downside of zombie processes on the system, fair
> enough.

It's not. The zombie also shows up in the output of pidof; this means
that, for example, scripts to restart a particular dead process will be
trying to restart the zombie. Many such scripts assume that any one
process will do for their purposes, or get the PID out of a file in
/var/run - inevitably the zombie. A handy tool/modification would be the
ability to (automatically) insert "*zombie* " before the taskname when
it goes zombie, so that information about the original purpose of the
process is not lost, but it also doesn't mess up attempt to restart and
suchlike.

-- 
Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?