Bug 3373

Summary:	'exec' feature creates zombie processes
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Linux	Reporter:	rotten
Component:	swatch	Assignee:	Preston Brown <pbrown>
Status:	CLOSED NEXTRELEASE	QA Contact:
Severity:	high	Docs Contact:
Priority:	high
Version:	6.0
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	1999-08-31 17:22:21 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description rotten 1999-06-09 20:51:04 UTC

When using the 'exec=command' feature in the 2nd
tab-deliminated field of the ~/.swatchrc, the command
executed does not terminate properly when it is finished--
it becomes a zombie process, every time (this has been
tested using such innocuous commands as 'exec=echo').

When swatch is triggered enough times, the zombie processes
build up, eventually filling the process table and thus
requiring a reboot.

Comment 1 Alan Cox 1999-06-12 15:19:59 UTC

You can clear the zombies by killing their parent. So killing swatch
will clean up the stuff it fails to wait for.
(Not a fix but avoids reboots)


------- Additional Comments From   06/12/99 12:44 -------
Not to split hairs, but I think it is worth noting that killing swatch
will not successfully clean up the zombie processes, nor prevent more
from being spawned... it is necessary to kill perl itself.
And a side note-- this bug is particularly detrimental on unattended
machines, since killing perl isn't an option in that situation.

Comment 2 Jay Turner 1999-06-29 15:10:59 UTC

This issue has been forwarded to a developer for further action.

Comment 3 Preston Brown 1999-08-31 17:22:59 UTC

fixed in swatch-2.2-8 and later, available soon in RawHide and
eventually our next release.