defunct process

[ub007]

Hi,

my app crashed & from dmesg I gather it has segfaulted.

#ps aux
root 34651 14.3 0.0 0 0 ? Z 07:15 14:10 [my_app] <defunct>

from man page, fields in Red correspond to

START the start time for the current process
TIME the amount of CPU time accumulated by the current process

so assume my_app started at 07:15.. & zombied out sometime later..
but what can I glean from TIME: 14:10 ? What does it tell me in this context?

Thanks in advance
David

[atreyu]

As I understand it, that would mean that your app consumed 14 minutes and 10 seconds of CPU time before it borked.

[Rubberman]

Also, the defunct label means that the parent process is not catching the Death_of_Child (SIGCHLD) signal, so it leaves what is known as a zombie in the process list. Not uncommon, but it does use up available process id's. When I run a sudo shell this happens all the time.