Understanding the init Processes
[init] is the most important process in Linux. All processes are derived from the init process and can trace their roots back to init. [init] always has a PID of 1 and is owned by root. The [init] process is used to start other processes and must be running for the system to operate. In a later article we will examine the boot process. Here [init] will be discussed in much more detail.
Parent Processes
Every process has a parent process, with the exception of [init], whose parent process ID (PPID) is 0. It is important to understand the effects of killing a process, especially if that process has spawned child processes.
Sidebar…for all you parent process’s out there
When you kill a parent process, without first killing the child procesi, then you have created orphans. Orphans will generally cause performance decreases as they are taking up resources, but not doing anything. Additionally, they usually do not self terminate, as that task can often be left up the parent. To ensure that you do not create orphans, make sure that no child processes exist when you kill the parent. This can be determined by reviewing the output of the –l switch of the ps command. Compare the PID and PPID columns.