[nzlug] can not kill a process

[Matthew Poole]

On Wed, 30 Aug 2006, anru chen wrote:

> i have a process that can not be killed even by use kill -9 pid.
>
> use top command. i have found that process use 99.9% cpu.
>
> the process is sendmail, seem like the sendmail process is waiting for 
> someting.
>
Have you tried using the system's init script to stop sendmail, to see if 
the process will die that way?
What about a ps wwfax, to see if the process is a child with a parent that 
can be killed?

IME, when you get a process that won't die to a kill -9 it's either a 
child that doesn't know what to do with itself or it's time to reboot the 
box. Usually the latter if the process is riding the system to town.

-- 
Matthew Poole
"Don't use force.  Get a bigger hammer."