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One of the ubuntu server has 82 zombie processes. All processes shows '[sh] defunct' as process command. Is there a way to find out which process is becoming a zombie process?
I tried checking the /proc/PID/ directory to get some clue about zombie process but all files are empty. How to find who let this process as zombie.. . Is there any other way to find it out?
Updated/Solved: Made the question clearer, and Answered my own question as suggested by andcoz.
The audit subsystem of the Linux kernel can be very useful to figure out what processes are becoming zombie processes. I just had the following situation:
server ~ # ps -ef --forest
[...]
root 16385 1 0 17:04 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
root 16388 16385 0 17:04 ? 00:00:00 \_ /usr/bin/perl -T -CSDAL /usr/lib/iserv/apache_user
root 16389 16385 0 17:04 ? 00:00:00 \_ /usr/bin/perl -T -CSDAL /usr/lib/iserv/apache_user
www-data 16415 16385 0 17:04 ? 00:00:00 \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 18254 16415 0 17:23 ? 00:00:00 | \_ [sh] <defunct>
www-data 18347 16415 0 17:23 ? 00:00:00 | \_ [sh] <defunct>
www-data 22966 16415 0 18:18 ? 00:00:00 | \_ [sh] <defunct>
www-data 16583 16385 0 17:05 ? 00:00:01 \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 18306 16583 0 17:23 ? 00:00:00 | \_ [sh] <defunct>
www-data 18344 16583 0 17:23 ? 00:00:00 | \_ [sh] <defunct>
www-data 17561 16385 0 17:12 ? 00:00:00 \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 22983 17561 0 18:18 ? 00:00:00 | \_ [sh] <defunct>
www-data 18318 16385 0 17:23 ? 00:00:00 \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 19725 16385 0 17:43 ? 00:00:01 \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 22638 16385 0 18:13 ? 00:00:00 \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 22659 16385 0 18:14 ? 00:00:00 \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 25102 16385 0 18:41 ? 00:00:00 \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 25175 16385 0 18:42 ? 00:00:00 \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 25272 16385 0 18:44 ? 00:00:00 \_ /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
The cause for these zombie processes is most probably a PHP script, but as these Apache child processes are processing lots of HTTP requests and lots of different PHP scripts, it's very hard to figure out which one could be responsible. Linux has also already deallocated important information of these zombie processes, so we don't even have /proc/<pid>/cmdline to figure out which script or -c command /bin/sh may have been running:
server ~ # cat /proc/18254/cmdline
server ~ #
To figure it out, I've installed auditd: https://linux-audit.com/configuring-and-auditing-linux-systems-with-audit-daemon/
I set up the following audit rules:
auditctl -a always,exit -F arch=b32 -S execve -F path=/bin/dash
auditctl -a always,exit -F arch=b64 -S execve -F path=/bin/dash
These rules audit all process creations of the /bin/dash binary. /bin/sh doesn't work here, because it's a symlink and audit apparently only sees the target file name:
server ~ # ls -l /bin/sh
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Nov 8 2014 /bin/sh -> dash*
A simple test should now produce audit logs in /var/log/audit/audit.log (I've taken the liberty and added a lot of line breaks to improve the readability):
server ~ # sh -c 'echo test'
test
server ~ # tail -f /var/log/audit/audit.log
[...]
type=SYSCALL msg=audit(1488219335.976:43871): arch=40000003 syscall=11 \
success=yes exit=0 a0=ffdca3ec a1=f7760e58 a2=ffdd399c a3=ffdca068 items=2 \
ppid=27771 pid=27800 auid=0 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=0 \
fsgid=0 tty=pts7 ses=7532 comm="sh" exe="/bin/dash" key=(null)
type=EXECVE msg=audit(1488219335.976:43871): argc=3 a0="sh" a1="-c" \
a2=6563686F2074657374
type=CWD msg=audit(1488219335.976:43871): \
cwd="/var/lib/iserv/remote-support/iserv-martin.von.wittich"
type=PATH msg=audit(1488219335.976:43871): item=0 name="/bin/sh" inode=10403900 \
dev=08:01 mode=0100755 ouid=0 ogid=0 rdev=00:00 nametype=NORMAL
type=PATH msg=audit(1488219335.976:43871): item=1 name=(null) inode=5345368 \
dev=08:01 mode=0100755 ouid=0 ogid=0 rdev=00:00 nametype=NORMAL
type=PROCTITLE msg=audit(1488219335.976:43871): \
proctitle=7368002D63006563686F2074657374
Lots of the information is encoded, but ausearch can translate it with -i:
server ~ # ausearch -i -x /bin/dash | tail
[...]
----
type=PROCTITLE msg=audit(27.02.2017 19:15:35.976:43871) : proctitle=sh
type=PATH msg=audit(27.02.2017 19:15:35.976:43871) : item=1 name=(null) \
inode=5345368 dev=08:01 mode=file,755 ouid=root ogid=root rdev=00:00 \
nametype=NORMAL
type=PATH msg=audit(27.02.2017 19:15:35.976:43871) : item=0 name=/bin/sh \
inode=10403900 dev=08:01 mode=file,755 ouid=root ogid=root rdev=00:00 \
nametype=NORMAL
type=CWD msg=audit(27.02.2017 19:15:35.976:43871) : \
cwd=/var/lib/iserv/remote-support/iserv-martin.von.wittich
type=EXECVE msg=audit(27.02.2017 19:15:35.976:43871) : argc=3 a0=sh a1=-c \
a2=echo test
type=SYSCALL msg=audit(27.02.2017 19:15:35.976:43871) : arch=i386 \
syscall=execve success=yes exit=0 a0=0xffdca3ec a1=0xf7760e58 a2=0xffdd399c \
a3=0xffdca068 items=2 ppid=27771 pid=27800 auid=root uid=root gid=root \
euid=root suid=root fsuid=root egid=root sgid=root fsgid=root tty=pts7 \
ses=7532 comm=sh exe=/bin/dash key=(null)
----
If you don't want to restrict the ausearch filtering to /bin/dash, you can also use ausearch -i -m ALL to translate the complete log. Another good filter would be ausearch -i -p <PID of a zombie process>, in this case ausearch -i -p 27800.
Just leave these rules in place until new zombie processes show up, and then search for the process creation of a zombie PID:
ausearch -i -p <PID>
This should be very helpful to identify the root cause of the zombie processes. In my case it was a PHP script that used proc_open to spawn a Perl script without closing the handle with proc_close.
Of course you can. There's many ways to do it, most common is probably :
ps aux
You can add a basic | grep -w Z and you'll have a short list of your zombies.
If you only want a list of zombie process and their pids, you can do as indicated on this page :
ps aux | awk '{ print $8 " " $2 }' | grep -w Z
Check this question for more details about process information.
awk can do all of that without needing to be piped to grep -- something like ps ax | awk '$3=="Z" { print $1 }'.
Mar 7, 2012 at 13:58
The short answer is that you don't care. A zombie process is dead. All it consumes is a tiny bit of kernel memory, for that entry in the process table.
Since all that remains of the process is the process table entry, you have little to go on. A zombie process is a dead process that its parent hasn't reaped yet; look at the process's PPID to see who the parent is.
One of the reasons for Zombie process are 'parent process' not waiting for the 'child process' - Executed ps -l which shows the parent process ID, with that you can find exactly which process is responsible for zombies in the machine.
ps auxf | grep --color -5 ' Z '
show process hierarchy including zombies and their parents Identifying zombie script name is difficult, as 'sh defunct' is only you see
ps alx | grep defunct
then see the ppid of the listed lines
ps alx | grep (ppid of listed lines)
ps -xwill show a list of processes and their respective status (columnSTAT). Status Z means Zombie (and you should also see the string<defunct>in theCOMMANDcolumn).answerand then accept your own answer. Do not put the answer in the question!