CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-004) — Question 245

An administrator is troubleshooting an issue where end users are waiting a very long time for processes to respond. The top command reveals that multiple processes seem to be in a non-responsive state or have become zombies.
Which of the following commands should the administrator use to clean up the system?

Answer options

• A. pkill -o 15m
• B. killall -n
• C. pkill -x
• D. killall -o 15m

Correct answer: B

Explanation

The command 'killall -n' is used to terminate all instances of a process by name, which is effective in cleaning up zombie processes. The other options, such as 'pkill -o 15m' and 'killall -o 15m', do not specifically target the non-responsive processes as needed, while 'pkill -x' focuses on exact matches and may not be suitable for all cases.