KILL

Section: Linux User's Manual (1)
Updated: November 21, 1999
Index Return to Main Contents
 

NAME

kill - send a signal to a process

 

SYNOPSIS

kill [ -signal | -s signal ] pid ...
kill [ -L | -V, --version ]
kill -l [ signal ]

 

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 -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.

 

SIGNALS

The signals listed below may be available for use with kill. When known constant, numbers and default behavior are shown.

NameNumActionDescription
00n/aexit code indicates if a signal may be sent
ALRM14exit
HUP1exit
INT2exit
KILL9exitcannot be blocked
PIPE13exit
POLLexit
PROFexit
TERM15exit
USR1exit
USR2exit
VTALRMexit
STKFLTexitmight not be implemented
PWRignoremight exit on some systems
WINCHignore
CHLDignore
URGignore
TSTPstopmight interact with the shell
TTINstopmight interact with the shell
TTOUstopmight interact with the shell
STOPstopcannot be blocked
CONTrestartcontinue if stopped, otherwise ignore
ABRT6core
FPE8core
ILL4core
QUIT3core
SEGV11core
TRAP5core
SYScoremight not be implemented
EMTcoremight not be implemented
BUScorecore dump might fail
XCPUcorecore dump might fail
XFSZcorecore dump might fail

 

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

pkill(1), skill(1), kill(2), renice(1), nice(1), signal(7), killall(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.

Please send bug reports to <procps-feedback@lists.sf.net>


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
SIGNALS
NOTES
EXAMPLES
SEE ALSO
STANDARDS
AUTHOR

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Time: 19:49:11 GMT, April 27, 2011