KILL(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual KILL(1) NAME kill - terminate a process with extreme prejudice SYNOPSIS kill [ -sig ] processid ... kill -l DESCRIPTION _K_i_l_l sends the TERM (terminate, 15) signal to the specified processes. If a signal name or number preceded by `-' is given as first argument, that signal is sent instead of ter- minate (see _s_i_g_n_a_l(2)). The signal names are listed by `kill -l', and are as given in /_u_s_r/_i_n_c_l_u_d_e/_s_i_g_n_a_l._h, stripped of the common SIG prefix. The terminate signal will kill processes that do not catch the signal; `kill -9 ...' is a sure kill, as the KILL (9) signal cannot be caught. By convention, if process number 0 is specified, all members in the process group (i.e. processes resulting from the current login) are signaled (but beware: this works only if you use _s_h(1); not if you use _c_s_h(1).) The killed processes must belong to the current user unless he is the super-user. To shut the system down and bring it up single user the super-user may send the initialization process a TERM (ter- minate) signal by `kill 1'; see _i_n_i_t(8). To force _i_n_i_t to close and open terminals according to what is currently in /etc/ttys use `kill -HUP 1' (sending a hangup, signal 1). The process number of an asynchronous process started with `&' is reported by the shell. Process numbers can also be found by using _K_i_l_l is a built-in to _c_s_h(1); it allows job specifiers ``%...'' so process id's are not as often used as _k_i_l_l arguments. See _c_s_h(1) for details. SEE ALSO csh(1), ps(1), kill(2), signal(2) BUGS An option to kill process groups ala _k_i_l_l_p_g(2) should be provided; a replacement for ``kill 0'' for _c_s_h(1) users should be provided. Printed 12/7/82 1