Re: Killing a zombie process?

[Robert Elz <kre%munnari.OZ.AU@localhost>]

    Date:        Sun, 4 Oct 2015 20:52:43 +0800 (PHT)
    From:        Paul Goyette <paul%vps1.whooppee.com@localhost>
    Message-ID:  <Pine.NEB.4.64.1510042046050.10951%vps1.whooppee.com@localhost>

  | I do occassionally switch to another wsdisplay screen (away from the X 
  | one), but not frequently.  I definitely do a switch before I use 
  | Ctrl/Alt/Esc to get into ddb.

OK, that could explain the forked init.

  | I'm wondering if some (most? all?) of the SSTOPd processes I see are a 
  | result of entering ddb and/or triggering the reboot?  Doesn't ddb need 
  | to stop whatever is running on "the other CPU cores" ?

No, not that kind of stop.

kre

ps: you might want to try fixing PR 50298 (that I just submitted) and see
if that makes a difference - I think the chances are about one in infinity,
but ...