DESCRIPTION
The
kill utility sends a signal to the process(es) specified by the pid operand(s).
Only the super-user may send signals to other users' processes.
The options are as follows:
-
-s signal_name
-
A symbolic signal name specifying the signal to be sent instead of the default TERM.
-
-l [exit_status]
-
Display the name of the signal corresponding to exit_status. exit_status may be the exit status of a command killed by a signal (see the special sh(1) parameter ‘?') or a signal number.
If no operand is given, display the names of all the signals.
-
-signal_name
-
A symbolic signal name specifying the signal to be sent instead of the default TERM.
-
-signal_number
-
A non-negative decimal integer, specifying the signal to be sent instead of the default TERM.
The following pids have special meanings:
-
-1
-
If superuser, broadcast the signal to all processes; otherwise broadcast to all processes belonging to the user.
-
0
-
Broadcast the signal to all processes in the current process group belonging to the user.
Some of the more commonly used signals:
-
1
-
HUP (hang up)
-
2
-
INT (interrupt)
-
3
-
QUIT (quit)
-
6
-
ABRT (abort)
-
9
-
KILL (non-catchable, non-ignorable kill)
-
14
-
ALRM (alarm clock)
-
15
-
TERM (software termination signal)
kill is a built-in to csh(1); it allows job specifiers of the form ``%...'' as arguments so process id's are not as often used as kill arguments. See csh(1) for details.