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KILL(1) General Commands Manual KILL(1)

killterminate or signal a process

kill [-s signal_name] pid ...

kill -l [exit_status]

kill -signal_name pid ...

kill -signal_number pid ...

The kill utility sends a signal to the process(es) specified by the pid operand(s).

Only the super-user may send signals to other users' processes.

The options are as follows:

signal_name
A symbolic signal name specifying the signal to be sent instead of the default TERM.
[exit_status]
Display the name of the signal corresponding to exit_status. exit_status may be the exit status of a command killed by a signal (see the special sh(1) parameter ‘?’) or a signal number.

If no operand is given, display the names of all the signals.

A symbolic signal name specifying the signal to be sent instead of the default TERM.
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.
0
Broadcast the signal to all processes in the current process group belonging to the user.

Some of the more commonly used signals:

0
0 (does not affect the process; can be used to test whether the process exists)
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)

kill is a built-in to csh(1); it allows job specifiers of the form ``%...'' as arguments so process id's are not as often used as kill arguments. See csh(1) for details.

The kill utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

csh(1), pgrep(1), pkill(1), ps(1), kill(2), sigaction(2), signal(7)

The kill utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) compatible.

A kill command appeared in Version 3 AT&T UNIX in section 8 of the manual.

April 22, 2017 NetBSD-9.2