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 <albert@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. Please send bug reports to <procps-feedback@lists.sf.net>