'kill' didn't kill XDarwin after using MacGimp.

chemistry_geek

chemistry_geek

Registered
Yesterday I was using MacGimp to edit some photos and when I was finished I quit MacGimp and XDarwin (OroborOSX-0.8preview3). I left the room for a while and returned and noticed that LoadInDock was pegged at 100% and ThermoInDock was 90°F (normal CPU temp is 75°F for my computer). I started a terminal session and typed 'top -u' and XDarwin (process 531) was taking between 75% to 85% of the CPU time. I typed 'kill 531' and nothing happened, it kept running. I typed it several more times with no success. Why didn't 'kill' kill XDarwin? I have never seen this happen. I finally su'd to root and 'shutdown now'. That took me to the console. Upon typing 'exit', the system seemed to go through the startup routine, I restarted anyway just to be sure none of the remains of that glitch were still present.
 
When you type kill 531, you are basically asking nicely for to the computer to please shutdown the pid 531. Try Kill -9 841 and let your computer know who the superuser really is :)
 
What 'kill' does is ask the OS to send a 'signal' to the process. To issue a 'kill' without parameters is to send a "nice" signal to the process telling it to shutdown. If the program is not crashed, it can cleanup any used resources and cleanly quit.

If it's crashed you can send it a TERM signal (-9), but there are other signals that could be of use to you and not be so drastic, the HUP signal comes to mind.

Read the 'man' pages and issue a 'kill -l' to list all available signals.


dani++
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top