Re: [PATCH 0/1] Fix zombie children when git is PID 1 in containers

>
> On 2026-02-23 at 16:51:46, Andrew Au wrote:
> > When git runs as PID 1 inside a container and exits via exit(128) on
> > transport errors, child processes (git-remote-https, ssh, proxy) are
> > never waited on because the normal cleanup paths (disconnect_helper,
> > finish_connect) are bypassed. Since PID 1 has no parent to reap its
> > children, these become zombies that persist for the container's lifetime.
> >
> > This patch registers atexit handlers in transport-helper.c and connect.c
> > to ensure children are reaped on any exit path, and clears them on the
> > normal cleanup paths to avoid double-waiting.
> >
> > Blog post with detailed investigation: https://cshung.github.io/posts/zombie-git/
>
> Usually people use a tool like tini as PID 1 in containers, which allows
> that process to handle process reaping while still exec'ing the normal
> Git or other command.  It's the case that _most_ processes are not
> designed to run properly as process 1 in a container or otherwise, so
> a specialized init-capable helper program is usually a good idea.
>
> Even with this series to fix some of the process reaping problems, I
> expect you'll find other cases in Git where we don't always reap
> processes correctly as well, so an init helper would still be useful.
> --
> brian m. carlson (they/them)
> Toronto, Ontario, CA