Man - kill

KILL(1)                                                                                    Linux User's Manual                                                                                    KILL(1)



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.


       Name     Num   Action    Description
       0          0   n/a       exit code indicates if a signal may be sent
       ALRM      14   exit
       HUP        1   exit
       INT        2   exit
       KILL       9   exit      cannot be blocked
       PIPE      13   exit
       POLL           exit
       PROF           exit
       TERM      15   exit
       USR1           exit
       USR2           exit
       VTALRM         exit
       STKFLT         exit      might not be implemented
       PWR            ignore    might exit on some systems
       WINCH          ignore
       CHLD           ignore
       URG            ignore
       TSTP           stop      might interact with the shell
       TTIN           stop      might interact with the shell
       TTOU           stop      might interact with the shell
       STOP           stop      cannot 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      might not be implemented
       EMT            core      might not be implemented
       BUS            core      core dump might fail
       XCPU           core      core dump might fail
       XFSZ           core      core 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 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



Linux                                                                                       November 21, 1999                                                                                     KILL(1)