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  • What is “too early”? What are the downsides of reaping them too soon? How to determine “long enough”? Commented Nov 5, 2012 at 12:20
  • That's a timing issue. If you happen to run your script just after a process dies, you need to let its parent process a chance to reap it and properly get its return status. Commented Nov 5, 2012 at 12:23
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    You would never know how long to wait. Better to let the parent do its job and fix it if it's not. Commented Nov 5, 2012 at 17:58
  • @Jim Paris: I agree the root cause should be fixed if possible but I assume the question means it is not possible for some reason. In any case, if the parent has not reaped a defunct child after say one minute, there is very little chance it will ever do it. Commented Nov 6, 2012 at 7:04
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    if you have zombie processes who's parent pid is '1' (init), those you can reap. If a zombie process still reports it's actual parent as it's PPID, wait it out. Commented Nov 13, 2012 at 5:02