kill(1) - Linux man page
Name
kill - terminate a processSynopsis
kill [ -s signal | -p ] [ -a ] [ -- ] pid ...kill -l [ signal ]
Description
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.
- 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 argument 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 signal 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.
