ptrace, debugging threads, zombies

[Stefan Hoffmeister]

Hi,

in

  http://boudicca.tux.org/hypermail/linux-kernel/2000week51/0423.html

Mark Kettenis writes

<quote>
However, the "zombie problem" is caused by the way ptrace() interacts 
with clone()/exit()/wait(), which I consider to be a kernel bug. 
</quote>

What apparently happens is that even though a thread has been terminated,
the debugger is never notified - and that causes zombies, and that in turn
causes out-of-resources problems. 

Is there any hope of this getting fixed in the 2.4 or the 2.2 series? The
patch supplied by Mark Kettenis AFAICS has neither been applied to 2.2.19
nor to 2.4.4.

TIA,
Stefan