[H-GEN] a process that won't die

[James McPherson - Solution Centre Engineer]

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Daniel Quinlan wrote:
> 
[snip]
> 
> host:~# ps aux | grep useradd | grep -v grep
> root     23021  0.0  0.7  1432  672 ?        D    Oct03   0:00 useradd -d 
/var/run/identd -g nogroup -s /bin/false -u 100 identd
> host:~# kill 23021
> host:~# ps aux | grep useradd | grep -v grep
> root     23021  0.0  0.7  1432  672 ?        D    Oct03   0:00 useradd -d 
/var/run/identd -g nogroup -s /bin/false -u 100 identd
> host:~# kill -9 23021
> host:~# ps aux | grep useradd | grep -v grep
> root     23021  0.0  0.7  1432  672 ?        D    Oct03   0:00 useradd -d 
/var/run/identd -g nogroup -s /bin/false -u 100 identd
> host:~# kill -15 23021
> host:~# ps aux | grep useradd | grep -v grep
> root     23021  0.0  0.7  1432  672 ?        D    Oct03   0:00 useradd -d 
/var/run/identd -g nogroup -s /bin/false -u 100 identd
> host:~# 
> 


As Jason and Craig have suggested, attribute D indicates waiting for disk io. 
Try running lsof on the pid to see which files it has open, and there may well 
also be some info in /proc that you can use to your advantage. Another 
suggestion (although you've probably already tried this) is to use trace (? 
truss on solaris) to try to see what is being waited on - you never know until 
you try.

James C. McPherson
--
Solution Centre Engineer              828 Pacific Highway 
Sun Microsystems Australia Pty Ltd    Gordon NSW 2072
             Support Helpline: 1-800-555-786



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