I am kickstarting an FC5 system, and when it is all done and reboots, /bin/nash is still running: $ ps ax | grep nash 305 ? Ss 0:00 /bin/nash /init Looking in /proc/305/status, it lists "nash-hotplug" as the name. If I attach to it with strace, it is in select, waiting on fd 6. I'm not sure what fd 6 is though; it appears to be a socket: # ls -l /proc/305/fd total 4 lr-x------ 1 root root 64 May 16 13:24 0 -> pipe:[723] lrwx------ 1 root root 64 May 16 13:24 1 -> /zero lrwx------ 1 root root 64 May 16 13:24 2 -> /zero lrwx------ 1 root root 64 May 16 13:24 6 -> socket:[724] However, there is no entry for 724 in /proc/net/* (maybe it is a stale netlink socket?). If I HUP the process, it does go away (with no apparent ill effects).
I haven't been able to reproduce this with newer systems.