Final answer:
If a process dies without managing its zombies, the zombies remain as defunct processes in the process table, which can lead to resource exhaustion and system performance issues.
Step-by-step explanation:
When a process dies without taking care of its zombie processes, these zombies will continue to exist as defunct processes in the system's process table. Zombie processes occur when the parent process has finished execution but still has an entry in the process table. This entry contains information about the process's exit status that needs to be read by the parent process. If the parent dies before it can read this information, the zombie will remain.
The operating system will not automatically clean up these zombies. In some cases, the init system or an adoptive parent process may eventually clean them up. However, if too many zombies accumulate, they can exhaust the process table resources, potentially leading to system performance issues or preventing new processes from being created. Therefore, it's important for a parent process to properly manage its child processes, including reaping zombies by reading their exit status, to maintain system health.