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Kill all Zombie processes one-liner

Terminal - Kill all Zombie processes one-liner
ps -xaw -o state,ppid | grep Z | grep -v PID | awk '{ print $2 }' | xargs kill -9
2013-01-09 04:21:54
User: terrywang
Functions: awk grep kill ps xargs
-4
Up
Down
Kill all Zombie processes one-liner

Did some research and found the previous command wrong, we don't kill a zombie but its parent. Just made some modifcation to khashmeshab's command.

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Alternatives

There are 15 alternatives - vote for the best!

Terminal - Alternatives
kill -9 `ps -xaw -o state -o ppid | grep Z | grep -v PID | awk '{print $2}'`
2010-10-27 07:29:14
User: khashmeshab
Functions: awk grep kill
Tags: csh kill process FreeBSD zombie
8
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Kill all Zombie processes (Guaranteed!)

It identifies the parents of the Zombie processes and kill them. So the new parent of orphan Zombies will be the Init process and he is already waiting for reaping them. Be careful! It may also kill your useful processes just because they are not taking care and waiting for their children (bad parents!).

Show sample output | Comments (7) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
kill -9 `ps -xaw -o state -o pid | grep Z | grep -v PID | awk '{print $2}'`
2010-10-27 07:19:52
User: khashmeshab
Functions: awk grep kill
Tags: csh kill process FreeBSD zombie
1
Up
Down
Kill all Zombie processes if they accept it!

Tested on FreeBSD 8.1 and CSH. The scripts works correctly but the Zombies do not die! I hope it will run and function as expected in Linux and others.

Show sample output | Comments (0) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
kill -9 `ps xawo state=,pid=|sed -n 's/Z //p'`
2010-10-27 07:38:07
User: AskApache
Functions: kill sed
Tags: csh kill process FreeBSD zombie
0
Up
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Kill all Zombie processes if they accept it!

just a leaner, smaller version. Love the original idea!

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Know a better way?

If you can do better, submit your command here.

What others think

This is wrong on several levels:

First off, you don't kill a zombie. It's parent has to wait() on it.

Zombie process (in case you didn't know this) is simply an entry in the process table of an exited process that was not wait()-ed on, yet. The sole purpose of zombie process is to carry the exit status to it's parent.

Second, using grep like that would kill any innocent bystanders that happen to have "Z" as an argv (not to mention any programs named "Z").

And while khashmeshab's alternative certainly works, I wouldn't necessarily recommend running around like dragon with a hemorrhoid killing everything in sight. Better to investigate why their parent fails to pickup on their termination before bringing in "kill -9".

Comment by wejn 19 weeks and 1 day ago

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