Kill
kill command is a command that is used to send a signal in order to request the termination of the process.
We typically use kill -SIGNAL PID, where you know the PID of the process.
- The kill() system call can be used to send any signal to any process group or process.
- int kill( pid_t pid, int signo );
| pid | Meaning |
|---|---|
| > 0 | send signal to process pid |
| == 0 | send signal to all processes whose process group ID equals the sender’s pgid. e.g. parent kills all children |
| -1 | send signal to every process for which the calling process has permission to send signals |
Please note that the above command tries to terminate the process graciously by sending a signal called SIGTERM. If the process does not get terminated, you can forcefully terminate the process by passing a signal called SIGKILL, using the option -9 as shown below. You should either be the owner of the process or a privileged user to kill a process.
# kill -9 31186 31187