Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition

Name

kill

Synopsis

                  kill [options] IDs
               

Terminate each specified process ID or job ID. You must own the process or be a privileged user. See also Section 7.6 and the killall command in Chapter 3.

Options

- signal

The signal number (from ps -f) or name (from kill -l). The default is TERM (signal number 15). With a signal number of 9, the kill is unconditional. If nothing else works to kill a process, kill -9 almost always kills it, but does not allow the process any time to clean up.

--

Consider all subsequent strings to be arguments, not options.

-l [arg]

With no argument, list the signal names. (Used by itself.) The argument can be a signal name or a number representing either the signal number or the exit status of a process terminated by a signal. If it is a name, the correspoding number is returned; otherwise, the corresponding name is returned.

-n signum

Specify the signal number to send.

-s signal

Specify signal. May be a signal name or number.