kill(1) 							   User Commands							   kill(1)

NAME

       kill - terminate or signal processes

SYNOPSIS

       /usr/bin/kill -s signal_name pid...

       /usr/bin/kill -l [exit_status]

       /usr/bin/kill [-signal_name] pid...

       /usr/bin/kill [-signal_number] pid...

DESCRIPTION

       The kill utility sends a signal to the process or processes specified by each pid operand.

       For each pid operand, the kill utility will perform actions equivalent to the kill(2) function called with the following arguments:

       1.  The value of the pid operand will be used as the pid argument.

       2.  The	sig  argument is the value specified by the -s option, the -signal_name option, or the -signal_number option, or, if none of these
	   options is specified, by SIGTERM.

       The signaled process must belong to the current user unless the user is the super-user.

       See NOTES for descriptions of the shell built-in versions of kill.

OPTIONS

       The following options are supported:

       -l	       (The letter ell.) Writes all values of signal_name supported by the implementation, if no operand is given. If an exit_sta-
		       tus operand is given and it is a value of the ? shell special parameter and wait corresponding to a process that was termi-
		       nated by a signal, the signal_name corresponding to the signal that terminated the process will be written. If an exit_sta-
		       tus operand is given and it is the unsigned decimal integer value of a signal number, the signal_name corresponding to that
		       signal will be written. Otherwise, the results are unspecified.

       -s signal_name  Specifies the signal to send, using one of the symbolic names defined in the <signal.h> description. Values of  signal_name
		       will  be  recognized in a case-independent fashion, without the SIG prefix. In addition, the symbolic name 0 will be recog-
		       nized, representing the signal value zero. The corresponding signal will be sent instead of SIGTERM.

       -signal_name    Equivalent to -s signal_name.

       -signal_number  Specifies a non-negative decimal integer, signal_number, representing the signal to be used instead of SIGTERM, as the  sig
		       argument in	the effective call to kill(2).

OPERANDS

       The following operands are supported:

       pid	       One of the following:

			   1.  A  decimal integer specifying a process or process group to be signaled. The process or processes selected by posi-
			       tive, negative and zero values of the pid operand will be as described for the kill function. If process  number  0
			       is  specified,  all processes in the process group are signaled. If the first pid operand is negative, it should be
			       preceded by -- to keep it from being interpreted as an option.

			   2.  A job control job ID that identifies a background process group to be signaled. The job control job ID notation	is
			       applicable only for invocations of kill in the current shell execution environment.

		       Note: The job control job ID type of pid is available only on systems supporting the job control option.

       exit_status     A decimal integer specifying a signal number or the exit status of a process terminated by a signal.

USAGE

       Process numbers can be found by using ps(1).

       The  job  control  job  ID notation is not required to work as expected when kill is operating in its own utility execution environment. In
       either of the following examples:

       example% nohup kill %1 &
       example% system( "kill %1");

       kill operates in a different environment and will not share the shell's understanding of job numbers.

OUTPUT

       When the -l option is not specified, the standard output will not be used.

       When the -l option is specified, the symbolic name of each signal will be written in the following format:

       "%s%c", <signal_name>, <separator>

       where the <signal_name> is in upper-case, without the SIG prefix, and the <separator> will be either a newline character or a space charac-
       ter. For the last signal written, <separator> will be a newline character.

       When both the -l option and exit_status operand are specified, the symbolic name of the corresponding signal will be written in the follow-
       ing format:

       "%s
", <signal_name>

EXAMPLES

       Example 1: Sending the kill signal

       Any of the commands:

       example% kill -9 100 -165
       example% kill -s kill 100 -165
       example% kill -s KILL 100 -165

       sends the SIGKILL signal to the process whose process ID is 100 and to all processes whose process group ID is 165,  assuming  the  sending
       process has permission to send that signal to the specified processes, and that they exist.

       Example 2: Avoiding ambiguity with an initial negative number

       To  avoid  an ambiguity of an initial negative number argument specifying either a signal number or a process group, the former will always
       be the case. Therefore, to send the default signal to a process group (for example, 123), an application should use a  command  similar	to
       one of the following:

       example% kill -TERM -123
       example% kill -- -123

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       See  environ(5)	for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of kill: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MES-
       SAGES, and NLSPATH.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values are returned:

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

       >0	An error occurred.

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWcsu			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |CSI			     |enabled			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Standard			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       csh(1),	jobs(1),  ksh(1), ps(1), sh(1), shell_builtins(1), wait(1), kill(2), signal(3C), signal.h(3HEAD), attributes(5), environ(5), stan-
       dards(5)

NOTES

   sh
       The Bourne shell, sh, has a built-in version of kill to provide the functionality of the kill  command  for  processes  identified  with  a
       jobid. The sh  syntax is:

       kill [ -sig ] [ pid ] [ %job ]...
       kill -l

   csh
       The C-shell, csh, also has a built-in kill command, whose syntax is:

       kill [-sig][pid][%job]...
       kill -l

       The  csh  kill  built-in sends the TERM (terminate) signal, by default, or the signal specified, to the specified process ID, the job indi-
       cated, or the current job. Signals are either given by number or by name. There is no default. Typing kill does not send a  signal  to  the
       current	job.  If  the  signal  being sent is TERM (terminate) or HUP (hangup), then the job or process is sent a CONT (continue) signal as
       well.

       -l	Lists the signal names that can be sent.

   ksh
       The syntax of the ksh kill is:

       kill [-sig][pid][%job]...
       kill -l

       The ksh kill sends either the TERM (terminate) signal or the specified signal to the specified jobs or processes. Signals are either  given
       by  number  or  by  names  (as  given  in  signal.h(3HEAD) stripped of the SIG prefix). If the signal being sent is TERM (terminate) or HUP
       (hangup), then the job or process will be sent a CONT (continue) signal if it is stopped. The argument job can  be  the	process  id  of  a
       process that is not a member of one of the active jobs. In the second form, kill -l, the signal numbers and names are listed.

SunOS 5.10							    2 Oct 2001								   kill(1)