sqlexec process becomes defunct

Hi folks, I'm observing the following problem in this particular environment. I-SE 7.20.UC4. DEC UNIX 4.0B DEC-ALPHA 4000 We are connecting to the engine over the network ( over TCP-IP ). Connection and processing goes on fine. It is only when the user quits the application that the sqlexec server process spawned by sqlexecd deamon is not getting killed . Instead the sqlexec process is left in a defunct state and we are unable to manually kill it. These processes are building up over a period of time and system hits the limit of number of processes per user. The spawned sqlexec processes are left defunct in all of the following 3 cases: i. Connecting to SE from ViewPointPro ii. Connecting to SE from MS-Access over ODBC iii. Connecting to SE from UNIX box, but using local-loopback connection. We are starting sqlexecd deamon manually. We log in as root, establish INFORMIXDIR and SQLEXEC and then run the deamon. Following is the contents of the sqlexecd log file: 1997-08-17 12:22:10.454818 Starting Daemon INFORMIX-SQL Version 7.20.UC4 Command Line = ./lib/sqlexecd balexco_se_net -l /dblog/sqlexecd.log INFORMIXDIR=/usr/informixdbservername=balexco_se_net nettype=sesoctcp hostname=balexco servicename=sqlexec_net options= 1997-08-17 12:23:01.054145 sqlexec <UNKNOWN-HOST> kamlesh -p(null) 1997-08-17 13:16:37.301546 sqlexec <UNKNOWN-HOST> kamlesh -p(null) . . . . . . 1997-08-17 13:21:28.631414 sqlexec <UNKNOWN-HOST> informix -p(null) Anywhere that we are going wrong perhaps ? Why are the sqlexec server processes left in a defunct state and not terminated ? Appreciate your feedback, Cheers, Sandeep Soneja