--- /dev/null
+[Allen Rueter][AR] [points out][ref] that one way to kill a defunct
+process is to kill its parent or child:
+
+ # ps -ef | grep '<defunct>\|PPID'
+ UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
+ zzz 13868 1 0 0:00 <defunct>
+ # ps -ef | grep '13868\|PPID'
+ UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
+ zzz 13868 1 0 0:00 <defunct>1
+ zzz 16596 13868 0 0:00 a.out
+ # kill -9 16596
+
+[AR]: http://www.cts.wustl.edu/~allen/
+[ref]: http://www.cts.wustl.edu/~allen/kill-defunct-process.html
+
+[[!tag tags/linux]]