prob: tbinit becomes <DEFUNCT> ??

Has anyone encountered this?? The tbinit deamon, running fine for a long time, one of them (the child) suddenly decided that it should die, becoming a <DEFUNCT> process. I don't know how to explain this, any help, anyone?? environment: HP machine HP/UX 9.00 Informix OnLine 5.02 the OnLine processes was supposedly: 9311 1 tbinit -s 9312 9311 tbinit -s when someone discovered the <DEFUNCT> process, it was: 9311 1 tbinit -s 9312 9311 <DEFUNCT> tbstat -u shows, as far as I can recall informix -------D ...... } one of these is PID 9311 informix -------D ...... } can't remember which informix -------F 9312 ...... sorry, can't remember the process ID for the other two user. But I am sure the third one has the same PID as the <DEFUNCT> process. Anyone can help explain this? It doesn't seems to be a critical error, but no one will believe me, since a <DEFUNCT> process is not an everyday occurence. (BTW, What is <DEFUNCT> process?? Some sort of runaway process, I presume.) The only effects is that it seems to slow down all the database access. Of course, I immediately/automatically recommended restarting the engine. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Calvin Ng email: <calvinng@brel.com.sg> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- [DISCLAIMER] Read at your own risks. The author is not liable for any consequences directly or indirectly involved with reading this mail. This mail MAY NOT be interpreted as those of my employer's. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This mail is sent with the help of Chameleon TCP/IP for Windows. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=