killing processes

[C M Reinehr]

Machiel,

On Tue 02 December 2008 08:41, Machiel Richards wrote:
> Hi all
>
>                 I hope someone can assist......
>
>                 We have a cron that runs regularly....however one of the
> child processes produced by the cron keeps on running even after the cron
> has completed...
>
>                 This uses up a lot of resources and we have not been able
> to kill it, not even by using kill -9.
>
>                 This is on a production system and we cannot afford to
> reboot the server.
>
>
>                 Can anybody perhaps tell us how to kill these type of
> processes?
>
>
> Regards
>
>
>
>
> *** Disclaimer ***
>
<deleted worthless noise>


Answer: `kill -9 <process id>` otherwise known as kill with extreme prejudice.

Question: Why are these processes not exiting properly, in the first place? 
Sounds like something is wrong here and this is what you need to be studying.

HTH!

cmr
-- 
Debian 'Etch' - Registered Linux User #241964
--------
"More laws, less justice." -- Marcus Tullius Ciceroca, 42 BC