Request for feedback: future of the "killer" command in Debian Edu

Mike Gabriel <[email protected]> Wed, 19 Aug 2026 21:37:00 +0000

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.skolelinux.devel,gmane.linux.debian.devel.education
Organization	DAS-NETZWERKTEAM
Message-ID	<20260819213700.Horde.E3jHc5inGuezvlY8OBNGmG3@mail.das-netzwerkteam.de>

Hi all,

I would like to get some feedback from those you have been involved in  
Debian Edu or still use it.

There is this package in Debian called "killer", shipping a Perl  
script called "killer". It was designed to clean-up user processes  
that are not needed anymore as the user has long logged out of the  
system, but in pre-systemd-cgroup desktop environments (those that  
start everything via a session manager / settings daemon / XDG  
autostart / DBus activation / what-not-else) many stray user processes  
remain active after logout.

This script has not really been maintained over the past years and it  
causes trouble on Debian Edu 13 systems (esp. diskless workstations),  
symptoms are arbitrary logouts after some time although the user is  
still actively using the system.

For our customers we mostly remove the killer package from their  
system (it is under Recommends:).

I'd, in fact, like to do the same for Debian Edu: stop using killer  
and stop maintaining the package.

Unless someone has a fixed version for me or an alternative. (A MATE  
desktop still leaves many stray processes behind after logout...).

Please share opinions & ideas! Thanks!

Mike
-- 

mike gabriel aka sunweaver (Debian Developer)
mobile: +49 (1520) 1976 148
landline: +49 (4351) 486 14 27

GnuPG Fingerprint: 9BFB AEE8 6C0A A5FF BF22  0782 9AF4 6B30 2577 1B31
mail: [email protected], http://sunweavers.net

signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, 851 B)