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Werk #19308: aix: Send SIGTERM before SIGKILL when killing processes that time out

Component Checks & agents
Title aix: Send SIGTERM before SIGKILL when killing processes that time out
Date Mar 2, 2026
Level Trivial Change
Class Bug Fix
Compatibility Compatible - no manual interaction needed
Checkmk versions & editions
2.6.0b1
Not yet released
Checkmk Raw (CRE), Checkmk Enterprise (CEE), Checkmk Cloud (CCE), Checkmk MSP (CME)
2.5.0b1
Not yet released
Checkmk Raw (CRE), Checkmk Enterprise (CEE), Checkmk Cloud (CCE), Checkmk MSP (CME)
2.4.0p23
Not yet released
Checkmk Raw (CRE), Checkmk Enterprise (CEE), Checkmk Cloud (CCE), Checkmk MSP (CME)

In the AIX agent, some processes which could take longer than expected to complete are killed by the agent after a pre-defined timeout.

Previously this time-out logic sent a SIGKILL and then moved on.

In some configurations and particularly depending on sudo being configured to not create a child process, this would mean that sudo gets killed but the stalled process does not.

In turn, this meant that output from the still-running process could get interleaved into the rest of the agent output, thereby corrupting it.

This has been fixed by first sending a SIGTERM, then waiting, only sending SIGKILL if the parent process stays around.

In those configurations where sudo does create a child process, this process notices the missing parent process and proceeds to kill its own process tree, so this configuration was not affected and worked as intended.

Users do not need to take action in relation to this fix.

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