What does mean in the output of ps

commandprocessprocess-managementps

I had issued the ps -ef|grep java command and this is one of the entries that I got :

subhrcho   875   803  0 Jan23 pts/5    00:02:27 [java] <defunct>

What is <defunct> implying here ? What state is that process is that process with PID=875 in ?

Best Answer

From the ps manpage:

Processes marked <defunct> are dead processes (so-called "zombies") that remain because their parent has not destroyed them properly. These processes will be destroyed by init(8) if the parent process exits.

Related Solutions

Apache – Why is apache2 showing up a defunct in the process list

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?

What does the term static variable mean in unix speak

Static variables are variables that exist throughout the lifetime of the program. That is, they are placed in memory allocated at compile time (as opposed to most variables, which are allocated at run time).

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Related Solutions

Apache – Why is apache2 showing up a defunct in the process list

What does the term static variable mean in unix speak

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