ITEM: DX5073L

Defunct child processes do not die

ENV:
  AIX 4.2
  C for AIX 3.1
DESC:

I have a sockets program that forks whenever a connection is made
to it.  The problem with this program is that the child processes that
it creates become defunct when they finish and accumulate over time. The 
only way I know to get rid of them is to kill the parent process and 
restart it.  To avoid having to do this, I would like to put this 
program under the control of the inetd daemon, but I'm not sure how to 
modify it to do this.  Do you have a sample C or C++ program that runs
under inet control?

Thanks,


Response:

 ENV:
        AIX 4.2

 PROBLEM:
        see above
*ACTION TAKEN:
        The objective I believe is to let the children exit without
        informing the parent of its death.  Thus no defunct
        child process.

        I suggest using the SA_NOCHLDWAIT flag to the 
        sigaction() function with SIGCHLD.  If set, and
        sig equals SIGCHLD, child processes of the calling processes
        will not be transformed into zombie processes when they 
        terminate.

        Note that this sigaction flag is only available on 
        AIX 4.2 and beyond.
*ACTION PLAN:
        Thank you for using AIX SupportLine.
 TEST CASE:
        n/a



Support Line: Defunct child processes do not die ITEM: DX5073L

Dated: November 1997 Category: N/A

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