KILL(1)

NAME
kill - send a signal to a process

SYNOPSIS
kill pid ... | Send SIGTERM to every process listed.
kill -signal pid ... | Send a signal to every process listed.
kill -s signal pid ... | Send a signal to every process listed.
kill -l | List all signal names.
kill -L | List all signal names in a nice table.
kill -l signal | Convert a signal number into a name.
kill -V,--version | Show version of program

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 | this signal may not be blocked
PIPE | 13 | exit
POLL |  | exit
PROF |  | exit
TERM | 15 | exit
USR1 |  | exit
USR2 |  | exit
VTALRM |  | exit
STKFLT |  | exit | may not be implemented
PWR |  | ignore | may exit on some systems
WINCH |  | ignore
CHLD |  | ignore
URG |  | ignore
TSTP |  | stop | may interact with the shell
TTIN |  | stop | may interact with the shell
TTOU |  | stop | may interact with the shell
STOP |  | stop | this signal may not 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 | may not be implemented
EMT |  | core | may not be implemented
BUS |  | core | core dump may fail
XCPU |  | core | core dump may fail
XFSZ |  | core | core dump may 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>