KILL(1) - man page online | user commands

KILL(1)                                   User Commands                                   KILL(1)

NAME
       kill - send a signal to a process

SYNOPSIS
       kill [options] <pid> [...]

DESCRIPTION
       The default signal for kill is TERM.  Use -l or -L to list available signals.  Particu‐
       larly useful signals include HUP, INT, KILL, STOP, CONT, and 0.  Alternate signals may be
       specified in three ways: -9, -SIGKILL or -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.

OPTIONS
       <pid> [...]
              Send signal to every <pid> listed.

       -<signal>
       -s <signal>
       --signal <signal>
              Specify the signal to be sent.  The signal can be specified by using name or num‐
              ber.  The behavior of signals is explained in signal(7) manual page.

       -l, --list [signal]
              List signal names.  This option has optional argument, which will convert signal
              number to signal name, or other way round.

       -L, --table
              List signal names in a nice table.

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

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

AUTHOR
       Albert Cahalan ⟨@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.

REPORTING BUGS
       Please send bug reports to ⟨@freelists.org⟩

procps-ng                                  October 2011                                   KILL(1)