Looking at http://rsync.samba.org, we see under bug fixes for 2.5.5
Fix situation where failure to fork (e.g. because out of process slots) would cause rsync to kill all processes owned by the current user. Yes, really! (Paul Haas, Martin Pool) If rsync is running as root when it triggers this bug it will kill all processes. This is indistinguishable from a system crash. Processes running as root are allowed to shut down the system. So this is not a Kernel bug. If you're still running 2.5.4, upgrade to 2.5.5. If you're running 2.5.5, try replacing the calls to kill() with an fprintf() to a logfile. Then manually kill any leftover rsync processes. -- Paul Haas [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To unsubscribe or change options: http://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync Before posting, read: http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html