What is a ______ process?
1: zombie
2: orphan

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

A zombie process is a child that has terminated but still has an entry in the process table; an orphan process is a child that is still running after its parent has died.

1. Relevant knowledge points and concepts
- Unix/Linux process lifecycle: fork(), exec(), exit(), and wait().
- Exit status and process table: when a process exits, the kernel retains its small bookkeeping record (exit status and PID) until the parent collects it with wait() — this is a zombie (defunct).
- Orphan handling: if a parent dies before its child, the kernel reassigns the child to init (PID 1) which will reap it when it exits, so the child continues running — this is an orphan.

2. Step-by-step reasoning
- Create child via fork(). Child runs and eventually calls exit().
- If the parent calls wait() (or waitpid()), the kernel delivers the exit status and removes the child’s process table entry — normal termination.
- If the parent does not call wait(), the child’s process table entry remains even though it has finished — this is exactly a zombie.
- If the parent process terminates while the child is still running, the kernel reassigns the child to init; the child keeps executing despite the parent’s death — this is an orphan.

3. Intermediate steps (process state transitions)
- fork() -> child RUNNING
- child -> exit() -> kernel marks child as TERMINATED but retains process table entry (ZOMBIE) until parent wait()
- parent dies before child exits -> child’s PPID becomes 1 (adopted by init) -> child remains RUNNING (ORPHAN) until it exits and init reaps it

4. Why the correct answers are correct
- The key distinction is whether the process has already completed (zombie) or is still running after parent death (orphan). The provided definitions match these precise kernel behaviors.

5. Why the other options are incorrect
- “Starts running automatically without any user interaction” describes an autostart/service behavior, not zombie/orphan semantics.
- “Running in an infinite loop” describes a runaway process, not the kernel bookkeeping states (zombie/orphan).

6. Conclusion
- Therefore: 1 (zombie) = "process that completed its run, but still has an entry in the process table." 2 (orphan) = "process that is still running, whose parent has died." This matches the provided answers.

What is a ______ process? 1: zombie 2: orphan匹配题

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