Description: An orphan process is a computing process that continues to run after its parent process has terminated. In operating systems, each process has a parent process that creates it. When the parent process ends, orphan processes may continue to run, which can lead to undesirable situations if not managed properly. These processes are important in the context of system resource management, as they can consume memory and other resources, affecting the overall performance of the system. In many operating systems, orphan processes are adopted by a special process known as ‘init’ or its equivalent, which takes care of their management and eventual termination. The existence of orphan processes can indicate problems in application programming, where processes do not close properly, leading to memory leaks and other stability issues. Therefore, identifying and managing orphan processes is crucial for maintaining the health and efficiency of distributed computing environments.
