KILL

Section: Linux User's Manual (1)
Updated: November 21, 1999
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NAME

kill - report process status

SYNOPSIS

kill pid ...	Send SIGTERM to every process listed.
kill signal pid ...	Send a signal to every process listed.
kill -s signal pid ...	Send a signal to every process listed.
kill -l	List all signal names.
kill -l signal	Convert a signal number into a name.

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.

SIGNALS

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

Name Num Action Description

ALRM 14 exit

HUP 1 exit

INT 2 exit

KILL 9 exit this signal may not be blocked

PIPE 13 exit

POLL exit

PROF exit

TERM 15 exit

USR1 exit

USR2 exit

VTALRM exit

STKFLT exit may not be implemented

PWR ignore may exit on some systems

WINCH ignore

CHLD ignore

URG ignore

TSTP stop may interact with the shell

TTIN stop may interact with the shell

TTOU stop may interact with the shell

STOP stop this signal may not be blocked

CONT restart continue if stopped, otherwise ignore

ABRT 6 core

FPE 8 core

ILL 4 core

QUIT 3 core

SEGV 11 core

TRAP 5 core

SYS core may not be implemented

EMT core may not be implemented

BUS core core dump may fail

XCPU core core dump may fail

XFSZ core core dump may 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 -l 11
kill 123 543 2341 3453

STANDARDS

This command meets appropriate standards. The -L flag is Linux-specific.

AUTHOR

Albert Cahalan <acahalan@cs.uml.edu> wrote kill in 1999 to replace the version that was not standards compliant. Michael K. Johnson <johnsonm@redhat.com> is the current maintainer of the procps collection.

Please send bug reports to <acahalan@cs.uml.edu>

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Time: 04:42:42 GMT, April 25, 2024