kill
KILL(1) Linux Programmer's Manual KILL(1)NAME
kill - terminate a processSYNOPSIS
kill [ -s signal | -p ] [ -a ] [ -- ] pid ... kill -l [ signal ]DESCRIPTION
The command kill sends the specified signal to the speci fied process or process group. If no signal is specified, the TERM signal is sent. The TERM signal will kill pro cesses which do not catch this signal. For other pro cesses, it may be necessary to use the KILL (9) signal, since this signal cannot be caught. Most modern shells have a builtin kill function, with a usage rather similar to that of the command described here. The `-a' and `-p' options, and the possibility to specify pids by command name is a local extension.OPTIONS
pid... Specify the list of processes that kill should sig nal. Each pid can be one of five things: n where n is larger than 0. The process with pid n will be signaled. 0 All processes in the current process group are signaled. -1 All processes with pid larger than 1 will be signaled. -n where n is larger than 1. All processes in process group n are signaled. When an argu ment of the form `-n' is given, and it is meant to denote a process group, either the signal must be specified first, or the argu ment must be preceded by a `--' option, oth erwise it will be taken as the signal to send. commandname All processes invoked using that name will be signaled. -s signal Specify the signal to send. The signal may be given as a signal name or number. -l Print a list of signal names. These are found in /usr/include/linux/signal.h -a Do not restrict the commandname-to-pid conversion to processes with the same uid as the present pro cess. -p Specify that kill should only print the process id (pid) of the named processes, and not send any sig nals.SEE ALSO
bash(1), tcsh(1), kill(2), sigvec(2), signal(7)AUTHOR
Taken from BSD 4.4. The ability to translate process names to process ids was added by Salvatore Valente <sva lente@mit.edu>. Linux Utilities 14 October 1994 KILL(1)