kill(1) [netbsd man page]
KILL(1) BSD General Commands Manual KILL(1) NAME
kill -- terminate or signal a process SYNOPSIS
kill [-s signal_name] pid ... kill -l [exit_status] kill -signal_name pid ... kill -signal_number pid ... DESCRIPTION
The kill utility sends a signal to the process(es) specified by the pid operand(s). Only the super-user may send signals to other users' processes. The options are as follows: -s signal_name A symbolic signal name specifying the signal to be sent instead of the default TERM. -l [exit_status] Display the name of the signal corresponding to exit_status. exit_status may be the exit status of a command killed by a signal (see the special sh(1) parameter '?') or a signal number. If no operand is given, display the names of all the signals. -signal_name A symbolic signal name specifying the signal to be sent instead of the default TERM. -signal_number A non-negative decimal integer, specifying the signal to be sent instead of the default TERM. The following pids have special meanings: -1 If superuser, broadcast the signal to all processes; otherwise broadcast to all processes belonging to the user. 0 Broadcast the signal to all processes in the current process group belonging to the user. Some of the more commonly used signals: 1 HUP (hang up) 2 INT (interrupt) 3 QUIT (quit) 6 ABRT (abort) 9 KILL (non-catchable, non-ignorable kill) 14 ALRM (alarm clock) 15 TERM (software termination signal) kill is a built-in to csh(1); it allows job specifiers of the form ``%...'' as arguments so process id's are not as often used as kill argu- ments. See csh(1) for details. SEE ALSO
csh(1), pgrep(1), pkill(1), ps(1), kill(2), sigaction(2), signal(7) STANDARDS
The kill function is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') compatible. HISTORY
A kill command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. BSD
April 28, 1995 BSD
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KILL(1) User Commands KILL(1) NAME
kill - send a signal to a process SYNOPSIS
kill [options] <pid> [...] DESCRIPTION
The default signal for kill is TERM. Use -l or -L to list available signals. Particularly useful signals include HUP, INT, KILL, STOP, CONT, and 0. Alternate signals may be specified in three ways: -9, -SIGKILL or -KILL. Negative PID values may be used to choose whole process groups; see the PGID column in ps command output. A PID of -1 is special; it indicates all processes except the kill process itself and init. OPTIONS
<pid> [...] Send signal to every <pid> listed. -<signal> -s <signal> --signal <signal> Specify the signal to be sent. The signal can be specified by using name or number. The behavior of signals is explained in sig- nal(7) manual page. -l, --list [signal] List signal names. This option has optional argument, which will convert signal number to signal name, or other way round. -L, --table List signal names in a nice table. NOTES Your shell (command line interpreter) may have a built-in kill command. You may need to run the command described here as /bin/kill to solve the conflict. EXAMPLES
kill -9 -1 Kill all processes you can kill. kill -l 11 Translate number 11 into a signal name. kill -L List the available signal choices in a nice table. kill 123 543 2341 3453 Send the default signal, SIGTERM, to all those processes. SEE ALSO
kill(2), killall(1), nice(1), pkill(1), renice(1), signal(7), skill(1) STANDARDS
This command meets appropriate standards. The -L flag is Linux-specific. AUTHOR
Albert Cahalan <albert@users.sf.net> wrote kill in 1999 to replace a bsdutils one that was not standards compliant. The util-linux one might also work correctly. REPORTING BUGS
Please send bug reports to <procps@freelists.org> procps-ng October 2011 KILL(1)