Creation of Zombie Processes. When a process completes its job, the Linux kernel notifies the exiting process’s parent by sending the SIGCHLD signal. … This causes the zombie state of the finished process to stay in the process table, and hence it appears in the process list as a zombie process.

What causes zombie processes in Linux?

Zombie processes usually occur for child processes, as the parent process still needs to read its child’s exit status. Once this is done using the wait system call, the zombie process is eliminated from the process table. This is known as reaping the zombie process.

What is zombie process in Linux?

On Unix and Unix-like computer operating systems, a zombie process or defunct process is a process that has completed execution (via the exit system call) but still has an entry in the process table: it is a process in the “Terminated state”.