gnomerc=Zombie

[Francois Ouellette]

Definition 1:
zombie: n. [Unix] A process that has died but has not yet relinquished its
process table slot (because the parent process hasn't executed a wait(2)
for it yet). These can be seen in ps(1) listings occasionally.

Definition 2:
A Unix process that has terminated (either because it has been killed by a
signal or because it has called exit()) and whose parent process has not
yet received notification of its termination by executing (some form of)
the wait() system call.

A zombie process exists solely as a process table entry and consumes no
other resources. This entry is retained to hold the child's exit status
until the parent process wants to retrieve it. The parent can also be
notified asynchronously via a signal of the child's termination.

--------------

According to these definitions (and my experience) a zombie does not use
resources! So the parent process of your gnomerc (probably init?) is still
waiting for a signal to terminate it for good.

Once again, there might be some bad command in your gnomerc script.

Suggestion 1: check your gnomerc script
Suggestion 2: re-boot!

 François Ouellette
<fouellet-cpI+UMyWUv9BDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>

>> You can't kill a zombie process, it's already dead!
>
> I've been told that a zombie process hangs around until init decides to
> get off its ass and remove it from the process list.  I'm not sure how
> often init does this, or if there is some way of forcing init to do it.
> I've had zombie processes stick around for months on end, until the next
> reboot.
>
>
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