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Find zombie processes and their parent processes

harmlessProcessesdebian, ubuntu
user@server
ps -eo pid,ppid,stat,cmd | awk 'NR == 1 || $3 ~ /^Z/'

Prints the header line and all processes with status Z (defunct). Zombies have already terminated and use no CPU; their parent process simply has not reaped them. The PPID column shows the culprit.

Note: Zombies cannot be killed with kill. They only disappear once the parent process is restarted or terminated.

Also searched as

  • remove zombie processes
  • top shows zombie
  • find defunct processes
  • what are zombie processes

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