Zombie Processes from iPhone Simulator?

Question

I've been working on apps for a while now and have just recently started noticing these zombie processes being produced for every launch of the app? I've now closed out Xcode and the simulator but they're just sticking around. Is there some new better way of testing your apps on the simulator that avoids this and/or why might this be occurring?

ps aux
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derek            2696   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z     1:25PM   0:00.00 (Test App)
    derek           93243   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z     9:00AM   0:00.00 (Test App)
    derek           89633   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Wed07AM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           87119   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Tue03PM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           86711   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Tue01PM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           86661   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Tue01PM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           86616   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Tue12PM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           86278   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Tue10AM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           83049   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon03PM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           83032   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon03PM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           82996   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon03PM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           82232   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon03PM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           82137   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon03PM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           82082   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon03PM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           82047   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon03PM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           81673   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon03PM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           81473   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon03PM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           76024   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon12PM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           72214   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon10AM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           70631   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon09AM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           70468   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon09AM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           70437   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon09AM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           68039   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon08AM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           67471   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon08AM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           67425   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon08AM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           67344   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon08AM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           67311   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon08AM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           67281   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon08AM   0:00.00 (Another App)
    derek           67235   0.0  0.0        0      0   ??  Z    Mon08AM   0:00.00 (Another App)
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Overmatch

Which version of Xcode are you using? This was an issue in older versions of Xcode (I distinctly remember seeing things like this happen during Xcode 4.3 days). – Airlee

I'm using Xcode 4.6.2. – Overmatch

Answer 1

This is a bug in Xcode 4.6.2 and earlier. It is fixed in Xcode 4.6.3, released yesterday (2013-06-13). I just talked to a couple of Apple engineers about it this morning at WWDC.

Corn

Been out of pocket but yes. Now that I'm updated to 4.6.3 the processes are no longer sticking around. Glad they got this sorted. Thanks again for the reply. – Overmatch

Answer 2

Just edit your target scheme -> Click right next to stop button in Xcode on your target, choose Edit Scheme, then go to Diagnostics tab and uncheck 'Enable Zombie Objects' option. Or eventually check your Arguments tab and be sure there's not NSZombieEnabled argument enabled.That should do it

Woodhead

Thanks for the answer. Neither of these options are checked nor enabled. – Overmatch

Zombie Objects have nothing to do with Zombie Processes. Zombie Objects are used to debug memory-related bugs (EXC_BAD_ACCESS). – Ebullient