4.1 System Resources

4.1.4 kill - terminate a process

Syntax

kill [-signal] process-id

Common Options

-l displays the available kill signals:

Examples

{unix prompt 9} kill -l

HUP INT QUIT ILL TRAP IOT EMT FPE KILL BUS SEGV SYS PIPE ALRM TERM URG STOP

TSTP CONT CHLD TTIN TTOU IO XCPU XFSZ VTALRM PROF WINCH LOST USR1 USR2

The -KILL signal, also specified as -9 (because it is 9th on the above list), is the most commonly used kill signal. Once seen, it can't be ignored by the program whereas the other signals can.

{unix prompt 10} kill -9 15599

[1] + Killed emacs unixgrep.txt