kill1
Terminate or signal a process
Usage
kill [-s
signal_name]
pid ...
kill -l
[exit_status]
kill -signal_name
pid ...
kill -signal_number
pid ...
Overview
The kill utility sends a signal to the processes specified by the pid operands.
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] -
If no operand is given, list the signal names; otherwise, write the signal name corresponding to exit_status.
-
-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:
- 0
-
The signal is sent to all processes whose group ID is equal to the process group ID of the sender, and for which the process has permission.
-
-1 -
If superuser, broadcast the signal to all processes; otherwise broadcast to all processes belonging to the user.
-
-PGID -
The signal is sent to all processes that belong to the specified process group ID (PGID).
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)
Some shells may provide a builtin kill command which is similar or identical to this utility. Consult the builtin(1) manual page.
Exit status
The kill utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
Examples
Terminate the processes with PIDs 142 and 157:
kill 142 157
Send the hangup signal (SIGHUP) to the process with PID 507:
kill -s HUP 507
Terminate the process group with PGID 117:
kill -- -117
Releases
87 releases since FreeBSD 2.0.5-RELEASE; the text changed 48 times.
- 2.0.5
- 2.1.5–2.1.7.1
- 2.2.2
- 2.2.5–2.2.6
- 2.2.7–2.2.8
- 2.2.9
- 3.0–3.2
- 3.3–3.4
- 3.5–3.5.1
- 4.0–4.2
- 4.3–4.6.2
- 4.7–4.11
- 5.0–5.2.1
- 5.3–5.5
- 6.0–6.3
- 6.4
- 7.0
- 7.1
- 7.2
- 7.3
- 7.4
- 8.0
- 8.1
- 8.2
- 8.3
- 8.4
- 9.0
- 9.1
- 9.2
- 9.3
- 10.0
- 10.1
- 10.2
- 10.3
- 10.4
- 11.0
- 11.1
- 11.2
- 11.3
- 11.4
- 12.0
- 12.1
- 12.2
- 12.3
- 12.4
- 13.0–13.2
- 13.3–14.2
- 14.3–14.5
- 15.0–16.0
-1 since FreeBSD 2.2.5-RELEASE;
-PGID since FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE;
-s since FreeBSD 2.2.5-RELEASE.