Zombie Program?

[Matthew Hannigan]

On Mon, Apr 16, 2007 at 09:07:41AM +1000, Andre Mangan wrote:
> >
> >
> >> I don't actually see how a zombie process can use resources - it isn't
> >> doing anything .
> >>
> >> Peter
> >
> >
> Quite so, Peter.  See http://www.linuxsa.org.au/tips/zombies.html
> 
> And...they are apparently not the same thing as Windows "orphaned files"
> which can be quite large.
> 

By definition, they use (and only use) a process number which is
a resource albeit a tiny one.
Which is not quite nothing, but only a problem if there are *lots* of them.

The existence of a many zombies may hint at poor programming,
which might hint at the existance of other (potential) problems.

Matt