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`kill -9` on a process blocked on a syscall does kill the process, it just doesn't clean the process up. The result of SIGKILL-ing (i.e., killing with -9) a blo
by pritambaral 9y ago
`kill -9` on a process blocked on a syscall does kill the process, it just doesn't clean the process up. The result of SIGKILL-ing (i.e., killing with -9) a blocked process is a zombie process. Zombies are dead, right?
- pjc50 9y agoWith a suitably wedged NFS process I believe you can get a process that is stuck in D even if you `kill -9` it.
- dozzie 9y agoYou're right, signal delivery does not interrupt an atomic operation, so if a syscall takes unusually long time (like network filesystems sometimes cause), the process hasn't received its SIGKILL yet.
- kl4m 9y agoI don't remember ever seeing Linux create a Zombie(Z) when a process is KILLed while in the (D) state. It just stays alive, stuck in D state.
- agwa 9y agoA zombie is a process which has terminated but has not been waited for by its parent. SIGKILLing a process blocked in an uninterruptible system call does not create a zombie.