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kill(2) [freebsd man page]

KILL(2) 						      BSD System Calls Manual							   KILL(2)

NAME
kill -- send signal to a process LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc) SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h> #include <signal.h> int kill(pid_t pid, int sig); DESCRIPTION
The kill() system call sends the signal given by sig to pid, a process or a group of processes. The sig argument may be one of the signals specified in sigaction(2) or it may be 0, in which case error checking is performed but no signal is actually sent. This can be used to check the validity of pid. For a process to have permission to send a signal to a process designated by pid, the user must be the super-user, or the real or saved user ID of the receiving process must match the real or effective user ID of the sending process. A single exception is the signal SIGCONT, which may always be sent to any process with the same session ID as the sender. In addition, if the security.bsd.conservative_signals sysctl is set to 1, the user is not a super-user, and the receiver is set-uid, then only job control and terminal control signals may be sent (in par- ticular, only SIGKILL, SIGINT, SIGTERM, SIGALRM, SIGSTOP, SIGTTIN, SIGTTOU, SIGTSTP, SIGHUP, SIGUSR1, SIGUSR2). If pid is greater than zero: The sig signal is sent to the process whose ID is equal to pid. If pid is zero: The sig signal is sent to all processes whose group ID is equal to the process group ID of the sender, and for which the process has permission; this is a variant of killpg(2). If pid is -1: If the user has super-user privileges, the signal is sent to all processes excluding system processes (with P_SYSTEM flag set), process with ID 1 (usually init(8)), and the process sending the signal. If the user is not the super user, the signal is sent to all processes with the same uid as the user excluding the process sending the signal. No error is returned if any process could be signaled. For compatibility with System V, if the process number is negative but not -1, the signal is sent to all processes whose process group ID is equal to the absolute value of the process number. This is a variant of killpg(2). RETURN VALUES
The kill() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error. ERRORS
The kill() system call will fail and no signal will be sent if: [EINVAL] The sig argument is not a valid signal number. [ESRCH] No process or process group can be found corresponding to that specified by pid. [EPERM] The sending process does not have permission to send sig to the receiving process. SEE ALSO
getpgrp(2), getpid(2), killpg(2), sigaction(2), sigqueue(2), raise(3), init(8) STANDARDS
The kill() system call is expected to conform to ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990 (``POSIX.1''). HISTORY
The kill() function appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX. BSD
March 15, 2012 BSD

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kill(2) 							System Calls Manual							   kill(2)

Name
       kill - send signal to a process

Syntax
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <signal.h>

       kill(pid, sig)
       pid_t pid;
       int sig;

Description
       The  system  call sends the signal sig to a process specified by the process number pid.  The sig can be a signal specified in a call or it
       can be 0.  If the sig is 0, error checking is performed, but a signal is not sent.  This call can be used to check the validity of pid.

       The sending and receiving processes must have the same effective user ID, otherwise this call is  restricted  to  the  superuser  with  the
       exception of the signal SIGCONT.  The signal SIGCONT can always be sent to a child or grandchild of the current process.

       If the process number is 0, the signal is sent to all other processes in the sender's process group.

       If  the process number is negative but not -1, the signal is sent to all processes whose process-group-id is equal to the absolute value of
       the process number.

       The above two options are variants of

       If the process number is -1, and the user is the superuser, the signal is broadcast for all processes except to system  processes  and  the
       process sending the signal.

       Processes may send signals to themselves.

Environment
       System Five
       POSIX

       When  your  program  is	compiled in the System V or POSIX environment, a signal is sent if either the real or effective uid of the sending
       process matches the real or saved-set-uid (as described in ) of the receiving process. In addition, any process can use a pid  of  -1,  and
       the signal is sent to all processes subject to these permission checks.

       In POSIX mode, the pid argument is of type pid_t.

Return Values
       Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.  Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned, and is set to indicate the error.

Diagnostics
       The system call fails under the following conditions:

       [EINVAL]       The sig is not a valid signal number.

       [EPERM]	      The  sending  process  is not the superuser, and its effective user ID does not match the effective user ID of the receiving
		      process.

       [ESRCH]	      No process can be found corresponding to that specified by pid.

See Also
       execve(2), getpgrp(2), getpid(2), killpg(2), sigvec(2), pause(3)

																	   kill(2)
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