KILL ( 1 ) USER COMMANDSKILL ( 1 )

NAME

kill - terminate or signal process

SYNOPSIS

kill [ options ] job ...
kill [ options ] -l [arg ...]

DESCRIPTION

With the first form in which -l is not specified, kill sends a signal to one or more processes specified by job. This normally terminates the processes unless the signal is being caught or ignored.

A job can be specified as one of the following:
number
number refers to a process id.
-number
number refers to a process group id.
%number
number refer to a job number.
%string
Refers to a job whose name begins with string.
%?string
Refers to a job whose name contains string.
%+ or %%
Refers to the current job.
%-
Refers to the previous job.

If the signal is not specified with either the -n or the -s option, the SIGTERM signal is used.

If -l is specified, and no arg is specified, then kill writes the list of signals to standard output. Otherwise, arg can be either a signal name, or a number representing either a signal number or exit status for a process that was terminated due to a signal. If a name is given the corresponding signal number will be written to standard output. If a number is given the corresponding signal name will be written to standard output.

OPTIONS

-l
List signal names or signal numbers rather than sending signals as described above. The -n and -s options cannot be specified.
-n signum
Specify a signal number to send. Signal numbers are not portable across platforms, except for the following:
0
No signal
1
HUP
2
INT
3
QUIT
6
ABRT
9
KILL
14
ALRM
15
TERM
-s signame
Specify a signal name to send. The signal names are derived from their names in <signal.h> without the SIG prefix and are case insensitive. kill -l will generate the list of signals on the current platform.

EXIT STATUS

0
At least one matching process was found for each job operand, and the specified signal was successfully sent to at least one matching process.
>0
An error occurred.

SEE ALSO

ps(1), jobs(1), kill(2), signal(2)

IMPLEMENTATION

version
kill (AT&T Research) 1999-06-17
author
David Korn <dgk@research.att.com>
copyright
Copyright © 1982-2010 AT&T Intellectual Property
license
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/cpl1.0.txt