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 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]

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.

SEE ALSO

builtin(1), csh(1), killall(1), ps(1), kill(2), sigaction(2)

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.

BUGS

A replacement for the command ‘‘kill 0’’ for csh(1) users should be provided.

BSD April 28, 1995 BSD