Well we need more information than just "Bukkit haz l0ts of process thingies". That won't help us help you. Things that are nice to know when trying to help someone with an issue like this: Operating system If you are using a startup script or a control panel Does it happen even when you restart the computer/server and start a new Bukkit process
Okay, sorry for the few details. The OS is Debian 6 with Java 6 running and we use no control panel or start scripts. We are just starting Bukkit (latest dev-build) with a screen session. It happens everytime: if there are no players, one player, 20 players (max). And it happens too if there is no plugin loaded.
I start the server with the command 'screen -S minecraft java -jar ./craftbukkit.jar'. I do not have any extra start scripts or control panels. The line of 'ps au' for minecraft: minecraft 4838 41.5 19.5 1622400 821272 pts/1 Ssl+ 18:36 2:09 java -jar ./craftbukkit.jar Also I have a high load every time someone joins the server.
then give us a ps -auf this shows the child-processes in a funny tree'd view could there be a faulty chron'd start or errant re-start script (maybe a leftover from a faulty experiment or sth. like that?)
No, there is nothing like a script for auto-restart or similar. I had never something like that on the server, not even as a test. ps -auf doesn't show more (child)-processes too. I made a screenshot of htop with tree-view: http://puu.sh/1uXwL
htop shows the THREADS of the java-process within the tree-view... those aren't single processes. If you analyse firefox with htop-tree'd view it look similar So I'd say your server is up and okay
I can just say your process/threads-thingy doesn't look suspicious... How about more specs? hardware, ram, connection? ps -au (complete pastebin) free -h maybe netstat -an (top-part) bukkit versions, plugins...