Apache – Unkillable apache2 processes

It is harmless. You can ignore it. It is a zombie process. The man page for ps has

Z    Defunct ("zombie") process, terminated but not reaped by its parent.

See also the Wikipedia page on Zombie process.

If you really want to get rid of it, restarting apache2 may do the trick. Rebooting the machine will certainly make it go away, but that is definitely not necessary.

This question is similar. - How can I kill a <defunct> process whose parent is init?

I had the same problem and resolved it by creating a kernel module that gets stuck in D state.

As I don't have any experience in modules, I took the code from this turorial with some modifications found someplace esle.

The result is a device on /dev/memory that gets stuck on read but can be waken up writting on it (it needs two writes, I don't know why but I don't care).

To use it just:

# make
# make mknod
# make install
# cat /dev/memory   # this gets blocked

To unblock, from another terminal:

# echo -n a > /dev/memory
# echo -n a > /dev/memory

Makefile:

obj-m += memory.o

all:
    make -C /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build M=$(PWD) modules

clean:
    make -C /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build M=$(PWD) clean

install:
    sudo insmod memory.ko

uninstall:
    sudo rmmod memory

mknod:
    sudo mknod /dev/memory c 60 0
    sudo chmod 666 /dev/memory

Code for memory.c:

/* Necessary includes for device drivers */
#include <linux/init.h>
#include <linux/module.h>
#include <linux/kernel.h> /* printk() */
#include <linux/slab.h> /* kmalloc() */
#include <linux/fs.h> /* everything... */
#include <linux/errno.h> /* error codes */
#include <linux/types.h> /* size_t */
#include <linux/proc_fs.h>
#include <linux/fcntl.h> /* O_ACCMODE */
#include <asm/uaccess.h> /* copy_from/to_user */
#include <linux/sched.h>

MODULE_LICENSE("Dual BSD/GPL");

/* Declaration of memory.c functions */
int memory_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp);
int memory_release(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp);
ssize_t memory_read(struct file *filp, char *buf, size_t count, loff_t *f_pos);
ssize_t memory_write(struct file *filp, char *buf, size_t count, loff_t *f_pos);
void memory_exit(void);
int memory_init(void);

/* Structure that declares the usual file */
/* access functions */
ssize_t memory_write( struct file *filp, char *buf, size_t count, loff_t *f_pos);
ssize_t memory_read(struct file *filp, char *buf, size_t count, loff_t *f_pos);
int memory_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp);
int memory_release(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp);
struct file_operations memory_fops = {
    .read = memory_read,
    .write = memory_write,
    .open = memory_open,
    .release = memory_release
};

/* Declaration of the init and exit functions */
module_init(memory_init);
module_exit(memory_exit);

/* Global variables of the driver */
/* Major number */
int memory_major = 60;
/* Buffer to store data */
char *memory_buffer;

int memory_init(void) {
    int result;

    /* Registering device */
    result = register_chrdev(memory_major, "memory", &memory_fops);
    if (result < 0) {
        printk(
                "<1>memory: cannot obtain major number %d\n", memory_major);
        return result;
    }

    /* Allocating memory for the buffer */
    memory_buffer = kmalloc(1, GFP_KERNEL); 
    if (!memory_buffer) { 
        result = -ENOMEM;
        goto fail; 
    } 
    memset(memory_buffer, 0, 1);

    printk("<1>Inserting memory module\n"); 
    return 0;

fail: 
    memory_exit(); 
    return result;
}

void memory_exit(void) {
    /* Freeing the major number */
    unregister_chrdev(memory_major, "memory");

    /* Freeing buffer memory */
    if (memory_buffer) {
        kfree(memory_buffer);
    }

    printk("<1>Removing memory module\n");

}

int memory_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp) {

    /* Success */
    return 0;
}

int memory_release(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp) {

    /* Success */
    return 0;
}
static DECLARE_WAIT_QUEUE_HEAD(wq);
static volatile int flag = 0;

ssize_t memory_read(struct file *filp, char *buf, 
        size_t count, loff_t *f_pos) { 

    printk("<1>going to sleep\n");
    flag = 0;
    //wait_event_interruptible(wq, flag != 0);
    wait_event(wq, flag != 0);

    printk("<1>Reading from memory module\n");
    /* Transfering data to user space */ 
    copy_to_user(buf,memory_buffer,1);

    /* Changing reading position as best suits */ 
    if (*f_pos == 0) { 
        *f_pos+=1; 
        return 1; 
    } else { 
        return 0; 
    }
}

ssize_t memory_write( struct file *filp, char *buf,
        size_t count, loff_t *f_pos) {

    char *tmp;

    printk("<1>wake someone up\n");
    flag = 1;
    //wake_up_interruptible(&wq);
    wake_up(&wq);

    printk("<1>Writting to memory module\n");
    tmp=buf+count-1;
    copy_from_user(memory_buffer,tmp,1);
    return 1;
}