View Issue Details

IDProjectCategoryView StatusLast Update
00007881003.1(2013)/Issue7+TC1Base Definitions and Headerspublic2013-12-19 17:23
Reporternick Assigned To 
PrioritynormalSeverityEditorialTypeClarification Requested
Status ClosedResolutionDuplicate 
NameNick Stoughton
OrganizationUSENIX
User ReferenceNMS-Zombie-01
Section3.446 Zombie Process
Page Number105
Line Number2871-2872
Interp Status---
Final Accepted Text
Summary0000788: Definition of Zombie Process unclear
DescriptionThe current definition of Zombie Process reads:

A process that has terminated and that is deleted when its exit status has been reported to another process which is waiting for that process to terminate.

This is muddled at best.
Desired ActionReword definition on P105 L2871-2872 to:

A process that has terminated but has not yet had its exit status reported to
another process which is waiting for that process to terminate.
TagsNo tags attached.

Relationships

duplicate of 0000690 Closed clarify behavior when calling waitpid with SA_NOCLDWAIT 

Activities

shware_systems

2013-11-07 19:22

reporter   bugnote:0001971

Possibly add, to cover the intent of "and that is deleted" in original text:
"Residual process specific data maintained until the exit status is reported shall be deleted as part of unblocking the (last?) thread that is waiting on the termination."

I added (last?) in case some implementations allow multiple processes to wait on an arbitrary process id, not just the parent process. This could be useful for handling parallel make dependency processing, but a pain to specify both how exit status returned to other than parent and an IPC method to communicate process id from parent to sibling processes.

nick

2013-11-07 19:32

manager   bugnote:0001972

The deletion of the process is covered in "Consequences of Process Termination". It is not a part of the definition of the term. See Page 549 l19059. The process is NOT deleted until its parent executes wait(), waitid() or waitpid(). However, an implementation MAY free some of the resources associated with a zombie (we don't prohibit that anyway).

shware_systems

2013-11-07 20:13

reporter   bugnote:0001973

That's fine. I agree it's more a consequence than needed to define it. Maybe a "For further details, see [link Page 549]" x-ref is appropriate, for those that may wonder why it's no longer there.

geoffclare

2013-11-08 10:35

manager   bugnote:0001974

This is already being fixed by 0000690

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
2013-11-07 16:57 nick New Issue
2013-11-07 16:57 nick Name => Nick Stoughton
2013-11-07 16:57 nick Organization => USENIX
2013-11-07 16:57 nick User Reference => NMS-Zombie-01
2013-11-07 16:57 nick Section => 3.446 Zombie Process
2013-11-07 16:57 nick Page Number => 105
2013-11-07 16:57 nick Line Number => 2871-2872
2013-11-07 16:57 nick Interp Status => ---
2013-11-07 19:22 shware_systems Note Added: 0001971
2013-11-07 19:32 nick Note Added: 0001972
2013-11-07 20:13 shware_systems Note Added: 0001973
2013-11-08 10:35 geoffclare Note Added: 0001974
2013-11-08 10:35 geoffclare Relationship added duplicate of 0000690
2013-12-19 17:23 geoffclare Status New => Closed
2013-12-19 17:23 geoffclare Resolution Open => Duplicate