Hi all,

now running the FB SuperServer (1.5.1) on Linux (SuSe 9.0) some time
without
any problems, after installation of some OS-Patches (I don't know
which ones,
but I could figure it out if that's needed) the following Problem occurs:

Before the OS-Patches, the Process list contained one 'fbguard' and some
(~20) 'fbserver' processes; this number remains "constant" (depending
on the
number of active databaseconnections).

Now after the OS-Patch, there are only up to three (plus some for each
active
connection) 'fbserver' processes; but there are a lot of
'fbserver'-zombies,
that won't be cleaned up:
~> ps -ef | grep fb
firebird 2924 1 0 08:15 ? 00:00:00
/opt/firebird/bin/fbguard -forever
firebird 2925 2924 0 08:15 ? 00:00:00 /opt/firebird/bin/fbserver
firebird 2926 2925 0 08:15 ? 00:00:00 /opt/firebird/bin/fbserver
firebird 2927 2926 0 08:15 ? 00:00:00 [fbserver] <defunct>
firebird 2928 2926 0 08:15 ? 00:00:00 [fbserver] <defunct>
firebird 2946 2926 0 08:16 ? 00:00:00 /opt/firebird/bin/fbserver
firebird 2947 2926 0 08:16 ? 00:00:00 [fbserver] <defunct>
firebird 2948 2926 0 08:16 ? 00:00:00 [fbserver] <defunct>
firebird 2949 2926 0 08:16 ? 00:00:00 [fbserver] <defunct>
firebird 2950 2926 0 08:16 ? 00:00:00 [fbserver] <defunct>
[...]
firebird 3072 2926 0 08:37 ? 00:00:00 [fbserver] <defunct>
firebird 3073 2926 0 08:37 ? 00:00:00 [fbserver] <defunct>

For each new established connection, some fbserver-processes
(threads?) are
created, that will become zombies after the database connection has been
terminated.

Also immediatately after restarting the firebird server
(/etc/init.d/firebird 'stop', then 'start') the processlist contains
already
those zombies:
ps -ef | grep fb
firebird 3442 1 0 08:56 pts/0 00:00:00
/opt/firebird/bin/fbguard -forever
firebird 3443 3442 0 08:56 ? 00:00:00 /opt/firebird/bin/fbserver
firebird 3444 3443 0 08:56 ? 00:00:00 /opt/firebird/bin/fbserver
firebird 3445 3444 0 08:56 ? 00:00:00 [fbserver] <defunct>
firebird 3446 3444 0 08:56 ? 00:00:00 [fbserver] <defunct>


Does anyone know that problem - and is there any possible resolution?

Roger