KILL(1) KILL(1) NAME kill - terminate a process with extreme prejudice SYNOPSIS kill [ -sig ] processid ... kill -l DESCRIPTION Kill sends the `SIGTERM' signal to the specified processes. If a signal name or number preceded by `-' is given as first argument, that signal is sent instead; see signal(2). The signal names are listed by `kill -l', and are as given in <signal.h>. The terminate signal will kill processes that do not catch the signal. The SIGKILL signal is a sure kill, since it cannot be caught. By convention, if process number 0 is specified, all members in the process group (usually pro- cesses of the current login or current mux(9.1) layer) are signaled. Killed processes must belong to the current user unless that is super-user. To shut the system down and bring it up single user the super-user may send the initialization process a terminate signal by `kill 1'; see init(8). To force init to close and open terminals according to what is currently in use kill -SIGHUP 1. The process number of an asynchronous process started with `&' is reported by the shell and by ps(1). EXAMPLES kill 7151 Kill process 7151 gently; the process can catch the signal. kill -SIGKILL 7151 Kill peremptorily; this signal cannot be caught. kill 0 Kill all the background processes in this process group. SEE ALSO ps(1), signal(2), signal(2), init(8)