kill(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   kill(1)

NAME

       kill - send a signal to a process; terminate a process

SYNOPSIS

       signame] pid ...

       signum] pid ...

   Obsolescent Versions:
DESCRIPTION

       The  command  sends  a  signal to each process specified by a pid process identifier.  The default signal is which normally terminates pro-
       cesses that do not trap or ignore the signal.

   Options
       recognizes the following options:

	      List all values of
				signame supported by the implementation.  No signals are sent with this option.  The symbolic names of the signals
				(without the prefix) are written to standard output, separated by spaces and newlines.

	      Send the specified signal name.
				The default is number signame can be specified in upper- and/or lowercase, with or without the prefix.	These val-
				ues can be obtained by using the option.  The symbolic name represents signal value zero.  See "Signal	Names  and
				Numbers" below.

	      Send the specified decimal signal number.
				The default is See "Signal Names and Numbers" below.

	      (Obsolescent.) Equivalent to

	      (Obsolescent.) Equivalent to

   Operands
       pid is a process identifier, an unsigned or negative integer that can be one of the following:

	      The number of a process.

	      All processes, except special system processes, whose process group
		     ID is equal to the process group ID of the sender.

	      All processes, except special system processes,
		     if  the  user has appropriate privileges.	Otherwise, all processes, except special system processes, whose real or effective
		     user ID is the same as the user ID of the sending process.

	      All processes, except special system processes, whose process group
		     ID is equal to the absolute value of pid and whose real or effective user ID is the same as the user of the sending process.

       Process numbers can be found with the command (see ps(1)) and with the built-in command available in some shells.

   Signal Names and Numbers
       The following table describes a few of the more common signals that can be useful from a terminal.  For a complete list and a full descrip-
       tion, see the header file and the manual entry signal(5).

				       signum	signame   Name		  Description
				       ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
					  0	SIGNULL   Null		  Check access to pid
					  1	SIGHUP	  Hangup	  Terminate; can be trapped
					  2	SIGINT	  Interrupt	  Terminate; can be trapped
					  3	SIGQUIT   Quit		  Terminate with core dump; can be trapped
					  9	SIGKILL   Kill		  Forced termination; cannot be trapped
					 15	SIGTERM   Terminate	  Terminate; can be trapped

					 24	SIGSTOP   Stop		  Pause the process; cannot be trapped
					 25	SIGTSTP   Terminal stop   Pause the process; can be trapped
					 26	SIGCONT   Continue	  Run a stopped process

       the null signal, invokes error checking but no signal is actually sent.	This can be used to test the validity or existence of pid.

       the  (default) terminate signal, can be trapped by the receiving process, allowing the receiver to execute an orderly shutdown or to ignore
       the signal entirely.  For orderly operations, this is the preferred choice.

       the kill signal, forces a process to terminate immediately.  Since cannot be trapped or ignored, it is useful  for  terminating	a  process
       that does not respond to

       The receiving process must belong to the user of the sending process, unless the user has appropriate privileges.

       As  a  single  special  case,  the  continue  signal SIGCONT can be sent to any process that is a member of the same session as the sending
       process.

RETURN VALUE

       Upon completion, returns with one of the following values:

	      At least one matching process was found for each
		   pid operand, and the specified signal was successfully processed for at least one matching process.

	      An error occurred.

EXAMPLES

       The command:

       signals process number 6135 to terminate.  This gives the process an opportunity to exit gracefully (removing temporary files, etc.).

       The following equivalent commands:

       terminate process number 6135 abruptly by sending a signal to the process.  This tells the kernel to remove the process immediately.

WARNINGS

       If a process hangs during some operation (such as I/O) so that it is never scheduled, it cannot die until it is allowed to run.	Thus, such
       a  process  may	never go away after the kill.  Similarly, defunct processes (see ps(1)) may have already finished executing, but remain on
       the system until their parent reaps them (see wait(2)).	Using to send signals to them has no effect.

       Some non-HP-UX implementations provide only as a shell built-in command.

DEPENDENCIES

       This manual entry describes the external command and the built-in command of the POSIX shell (see sh-posix(1)).	Other shells,  such  as  C
       and  Korn  (see csh(1) and ksh(1) respectively), also provide as a built-in command.  The syntax for and output from these built-ins may be
       different.

SEE ALSO

       csh(1), ksh(1), ps(1), sh(1), sh-posix(1), kill(2), wait(2), signal(5).

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

																	   kill(1)