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zombie reaping

Cleaning up finished child processes that still occupy a slot in the process table.

When a process exits, it doesn't fully disappear — it becomes a "zombie" holding a table entry until its parent collects its exit status. Reaping is the act of collecting that status (via a call like waitpid) so the entry is released. Skipping it leaks zombie entries until the table fills up.

See also

  • waitpidA system call a parent process uses to wait for and collect the exit status of its child.
  • userspaceThe world where ordinary programs run, kept separate from the privileged core of the operating system.

Referenced by

use-after-free · waitpid