Bug 746004

Same here on Fedora 15

$ sudo yum install lshw-gui
Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit
Existing lock /var/run/yum.pid: another copy is running as pid 21717.
Another app is currently holding the yum lock; waiting for it to exit...
  The other application is: PackageKit
    Memory :  37 M RSS ( 58 MB VSZ)
    Started: Thu Oct 27 15:31:19 2011 - 23:09 ago
    State  : Sleeping, pid: 21717
$ ps -ef |grep 8880
root      8880     1  0 10:24 ?        00:00:17 /usr/libexec/packagekitd
root     21717  8880  0 15:31 ?        00:00:23 [yumBackend.py] <defunct>
root     24495  8880  0 16:02 ?        00:00:00 [yumBackend.py] <defunct>
root     24654  8880  0 16:04 ?        00:00:00 [yumBackend.py] <defunct>

After I killed 21717, everything went back to normal.

I'm seeing this in Fedora 16 too.

[root@warthog Documents]# yum upgrade
Loaded plugins: auto-update-debuginfo, downloadonly, presto, refresh-packagekit
Existing lock /var/run/yum.pid: another copy is running as pid 22820.
Another app is currently holding the yum lock; waiting for it to exit...
...

22817 ?        Sl     1:53 /usr/libexec/packagekitd
22820 ?        Z      0:03  \_ [yumBackend.py] <defunct>
 6219 ?        S      0:00  \_ /usr/bin/python /usr/share/PackageKit/helpers/yum/yumBackend.py get-distro-upgrades

Someone isn't burying their zombies...

Looking at the packagekitd in /proc/22817/status, it isn't blocking or ignoring SIGCHLD:

    SigPnd: 0000000000000000
    ShdPnd: 0000000000000000
    SigBlk: 0000000000000000
    SigIgn: 0000000000001000
    SigCgt: 0000000180000002

Attaching gdb to the process shows this:

0x0000003e01ce6af3 in __GI___poll (fds=<optimized out>, nfds=<optimized out>, timeout=<optimized out>)
    at ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/poll.c:87
87        int result = INLINE_SYSCALL (poll, 3, CHECK_N (fds, nfds), nfds, timeout);
Missing separate debuginfos, use: debuginfo-install PackageKit-0.6.21-2.fc16.x86_64
(gdb) bt
#0  0x0000003e01ce6af3 in __GI___poll (fds=<optimized out>, nfds=<optimized out>, timeout=<optimized out>)
    at ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/poll.c:87
#1  0x0000003d93044fd8 in g_main_context_poll (n_fds=3, fds=0x781fb0, priority=<optimized out>, timeout=4996, context=0x7395a0)
    at gmain.c:3402
#2  g_main_context_iterate (context=0x7395a0, block=<optimized out>, dispatch=1, self=<optimized out>) at gmain.c:3084
#3  0x0000003d93045815 in g_main_loop_run (loop=0x74c3c0) at gmain.c:3297
#4  0x000000000040e31f in main ()

The problem might be that pk_spawn_argv() calls g_spawn_async_with_pipes() but doesn't use g_child_watch_add().

Same here with Fedora 17
Pls note that I disabled updates from apper (PK).

$ yum update --nogpgcheck
Modules complémentaires chargés : langpacks, presto, refresh-packagekit
Verrou /var/run/yum.pid existant : une autre copie est lancée avec le pid 5764.
Une autre application verrouille actuellement l'utilisation de yum ; attente de déverrouillage...
Il s'agit de PackageKit
    Mémoire :  26 M RSS (430 MB VSZ)
    Débuté  : Wed Feb 20 10:07:42 2013 - il y a 34:02
    État    : Mise en attente, pid : 5764
.....
$ps -ef | grep 5764
root      5764  5747  0 10:07 ?        00:00:01 /usr/bin/python /usr/share/PackageKit/helpers/yum/yumBackend.py get-distro-upgrades

Looking at the packagekitd in /proc/5764/status :
Name:   yumBackend.py
State:  S (sleeping)
...
Threads:        1
SigQ:   2/31083
SigPnd: 0000000000000000
ShdPnd: 0000000000000000
SigBlk: 0000000000000000
SigIgn: 0000000001001000
SigCgt: 0000000180000006

This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora 19 development cycle.
Changing version to '19'.

(As we did not run this process for some time, it could affect also pre-Fedora 19 development
cycle bugs. We are very sorry. It will help us with cleanup during Fedora 19 End Of Life. Thank you.)

More information and reason for this action is here:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping/Fedora19