How to Kill Zombie Processes in Ubuntu

 

Use the ps command. I almost always use ps auxwww.

$ ps auxwww
USER       PID %CPU %MEM      VSZ    RSS   TT  STAT STARTED      TIME COMMAND
exegete  22199   0.0  0.2    79204   3280 s000  Z     9:16AM   0:00.78 vi
exegete  22185   0.0  0.0    75968    968 s000  S     9:16AM   0:00.01 -bash

According to the docs, a "Z" in the STAT column indicates a zombie process. Check the man pages: man ps

Using kill -9 <PID> to kill zomnie

OR

ps axo stat,ppid,pid,comm | grep -w defunct

ps -elf --forest | grep -C5 '<[d]efunct>'

OR

Basically:

1) Identify the zombie process:

ps axo stat,ppid,pid,comm | grep -w defunct

2) Kill the parent process:

sudo kill -9 <parent_process_number>