Kill processes that ps displays but don't exist(?)

[kHz]

I have 8 processes that show in a 'ps -ef' but none of the kill signals and fuser don't get rid of the processes. So I would say the processes don't exist except in the process table, however, the application won't start because it cannot bind to the port; which means the processes have the port locked. I cannot bounce the server. Anybody have any ideas on removing the processes?

Thanks.

 

[SamBones]

Have you tried [tt]pkill[/tt]? Check the [tt]man[/tt] page and try it.

 

[kHz]

Thanks. pkill uses the same signals and allows for finding process by name or other things.

Guess I will tell the developers their server has to be rebooted.

 

[SamBones]

Well, if the port is "owned", then there must be a process that has it opened.

I've seen processes in the past that were dying and restarting so fast that I couldn't kill them using their PID since it kept changing. That's why I suggested [tt]pkill[/tt], because you can kill a process by specifying it's executable name (and some other options). Sometimes this lets you kill a respawning process.

Also, just to confirm, that was a [tt]kill -9[/tt] you tried?

 

[kHz]

Yes, it was a kill -9. I tried the pkill with the executable name but it just returned to a prompt like kill.

I ended up restarting the server but it had problems going down. Had a /tmp error and some devinfo errors. It is up now and running fine.

Thanks for your help.