Subject: the reaper
To: None <tech-kern@netbsd.org>
From: Jeremy C. Reed <reed@reedmedia.net>
List: tech-kern
Date: 01/10/2001 12:53:46
I am trying to figure out some details about reaper for a non-technical,
generic BSD article and maybe some manual pages about special system
processes. And I have a few questions.
I understand that the reaper is a kernel process thread that helps free a
dead process's VM resources, old stacks and u-area. Then the process
becomes a zombie.
Does vmspace and VM resources mean the same thing?
Does anyone have an example or an easy-to-understand description?
What does the following mean?
"Give machine-dependent code a chance to free any resources it
couldn't free while still running on that process's context."
What is "u-area" mean? How is it related to the reaper?
On a related note, are there any special system processes other than the
swapper, pagedaemon, reaper and ioflush?
Where is this well documented? (Please note that I have grep'ed the source
and manual pages and I do not own "The Design and Implementation of the
4.4BSD Operating System".)
By the way, should I submit my findings to create some manual pages for
the Kernel Manual (manual section 9)?
Thanks,
Jeremy C. Reed
http://www.reedmedia.net/