Zombie Process

In UNIX or its similar OS environment if a process stops running abnormally but its entry has not removed from process table known as Zombie Process.

Reason

If a process gets stop with exit and meanwhile parent process is sleeping then parent will be able to known the status at sleeping moment and entry of the killed process still in process table which imply Zombie.

Solution

When a Zombie is got created parent Update itself by read all its child status to exit and update the process table. This process is known as “reaps “

Example

// A C program to demonstrate Zombie Process.

// Child becomes Zombie as parent is sleeping

// when child process exits.

#include <stdlib.h>

#include <sys/types.h>

#include <unistd.h>

int main()

{

    // Fork returns process id

    // in parent process

    pid_t child_process_id = fork();

    // Parent process

    if (child_process_id > 0)

        sleep(50);

    // Child process

    else      

        exit(0);

    return 0;

}

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