kill(1) [xfree86 man page]
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)
Check Out this Related 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 processes specified by the pid operands. 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] If no operand is given, list the signal names; otherwise, write the signal name corresponding to exit_status. -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. 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) Some shells may provide a builtin kill command which is similar or identical to this utility. Consult the builtin(1) manual page. EXIT STATUS
The kill utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. EXAMPLES
Terminate the processes with PIDs 142 and 157: kill 142 157 Send the hangup signal (SIGHUP) to the process with PID 507: kill -s HUP 507 Terminate the process group with PGID 117: kill -- -117 SEE ALSO
builtin(1), csh(1), killall(1), ps(1), sh(1), kill(2), sigaction(2) STANDARDS
The kill utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') compatible. HISTORY
A kill command appeared in Version 3 AT&T UNIX. BUGS
A replacement for the command ``kill 0'' for csh(1) users should be provided. BSD
April 28, 1995 BSD