A zombie process is a sub-process that finished (normally or otherwise), but it's not yet reaped by its parent (i.e.: its parent didn't collect its exit code).
It can't be killed (because it's already dead, hence "zombie"), but it won't consume resources (CPU and memory).
However, it is still using a scheduler process id; it's theoretically possible to starve a system of pids
(therefore, preventing it to create new processes) launching dummy subprocesses and not reaping them.
It can't be killed (because it's already dead, hence "zombie"), but it won't consume resources (CPU and memory).
However, it is still using a scheduler process id; it's theoretically possible to starve a system of pids
(therefore, preventing it to create new processes) launching dummy subprocesses and not reaping them.
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