KILL(1)			  Linux Programmer's Manual		      KILL(1)



NAME
       kill - terminate a process

SYNOPSIS
       kill [ -s signal | -p ] [ -a ] [ -- ] pid ...
       kill -l [ signal ]

DESCRIPTION
       The  command  kill sends the specified signal to the specified process
       or process group.  If no signal is specified, the TERM signal is sent.
       The  TERM  signal  will kill processes which do not catch this signal.
       For other processes, 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  signal.	 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 argument 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, otherwise 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 sig-
	      nal 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 process.

       -p     Specify that kill should only print the process id (pid) of the
	      named processes, and not send any signals.

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 .



Linux Utilities		       14 October 1994			      KILL(1)

UNIX/Linux commands referenced on this page:

1. which
2. as
3. id