Orphan Processes
Orphan processes is kind of the opposite situation of zombie processes, since it refers to the case where a parent process terminates before its child processes, in which case these children are said to become "orphaned".
Unlike the assynchronous child-to-parent notification that happens when a child process terminates (via the SIGCHLD signal), child processes are not notified immediately when their parent finishes. Instead, the system simply redefines the "parent-pid" field in the child process's data to be the process that is the "ancestor" of every other process in the system, whose pid generally has the value 1 (one), and whose name is traditionally "init". It is thus said that "init 'adopts' every orphan process on the system".
A somewhat common assumption by programmers new to UNIX is that the child processes of a terminating process will be adopted this process's immediate parent process (hence those child processes' "grandparent"). Such assumption is incorrect—unless, of course, that "grandparent" is init itself.
Read more about this topic: Parent Process
Famous quotes containing the words orphan and/or processes:
“The obvious parallels between Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz have frequently been noted: in both there is the orphan hero who is raised on a farm by an aunt and uncle and yearns to escape to adventure. Obi-wan Kenobi resembles the Wizard; the loyal, plucky little robot R2D2 is Toto; C3PO is the Tin Man; and Chewbacca is the Cowardly Lion. Darth Vader replaces the Wicked Witch: this is a patriarchy rather than a matriarchy.”
—Andrew Gordon, U.S. educator, critic. “The Inescapable Family in American Science Fiction and Fantasy Films,” Journal of Popular Film and Television (Summer 1992)
“Our bodies are shaped to bear children, and our lives are a working out of the processes of creation. All our ambitions and intelligence are beside that great elemental point.”
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–1978)