glossary.9 (2010 09)

glossary(9) glossary(9)

working directory

Each process has associated with it the concept of a current working directory. For a shell, this appears

as the directory in which you currently "reside". This is the directory in which relative path name (that is,

a path name that does not begin with

/) searches begin. It is sometimes referred to as the current

directory,orthecurrent working directory.

zombie process

The name given to a process which terminates for any reason, but whose parent process has not yet

waited for it to terminate (via wait (2)). The process which terminated continues to occupy a slot in the

process table until its parent process waits for it. Because it has terminated, however, there is no other

space allocated to it either in user or kernel space. It is therefore a relatively harmless occurrence which

will rectify itself the next time its parent process waits. The ps(1) command lists zombie processes as

defunct.