NAME

kill − terminate a process

SYNOPSIS

kill [−signo | −signame] PID ...
kill −l

DESCRIPTION

kill sends signal 15 (terminate) to the specified processes.  This normally kills processes that do not catch or ignore the signal.  The process number of each asynchronous process started with & is reported by the Shell (unless more than one process is started in a pipeline, in which case the number of the last process in the pipeline is reported).  Process numbers can also be found by using ps(1).

The second form of the command lists the supported signals. 

The details of the kill are described in kill(2). For example, if process number 0 is specified, all processes in the process group are signaled.

The killed process must belong to the current user unless the current user is the user with appropriate privileges. 

If a signal number or signal name preceded by − is given as first argument, that signal is sent instead of terminate (see signal(5)). In particular, kill −9 ... is a sure kill.  If the first argument is a negative integer, it is interpreted as a signal number; not as a negative pid (process group). 

A signal name can be any of the signal names listed in signal(5) with or without the SIG prefix.  In addition, SIGNULL is recognized and represents the signal value 0.  Signal names are uppercase/lowercase-independent. 

EXAMPLES

The command:

kill 6135

signals process number 6135 to terminate (assuming you own the process).  This gives the process a chance to exit gracefully (removing temporary files, etc.). 

The commands:

kill -9 6135

kill -SIGKILL 6135

kill -KILL 6135

terminate process number 6135 by sending a SIGKILL signal to the process (assuming you own the process).  This tells the kernel to remove the process immediately. 

SEE ALSO

ps(1), sh(1), kill(2), signal(5). 

WARNINGS

If a process becomes hung during some operation (such as I/O) so that it is never scheduled, that process cannot die until it is allowed to run.  Thus, such a process may never go away after the kill. 

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

kill: SVID2, XPG2, XPG3, proposed POSIX.2 FIPS (June 1990)

Hewlett-Packard Company  —  HP-UX Release 8.05: June 1991