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Linux kill

The most common command to terminate a process is kill command. You need to know the PID of the process you want to terminate.

kill command sends signal to the specified process. For sending signal either signal name or signal number can be used.

Syntax:

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Common signal names and numbers

Here is a list of some common signal names and signal numbers. Please note that these signal names and signal numbers may vary. For complete information about signals refer to the man page of the signal with command “man 5 signal” or “man 7 signal”.

Signal Name	Signal Number	Signal Use
SIGNULL	0	NULL, check access to PID
SIGHUP	1	Hangup
SIGINT	2	Interrupt
SIGQUIT	3	Quit
SIGKILL	9	Kill
SIGTERM	15	Terminate
SIGSTOP	24	Stop
SIGTSTP	25	Stop/pause the process
SIGCONT	26	Continue a stopped process

To list signal names

To see a list of signal names in your system, following command can be used.

Syntax:

Example:

To kill a process having PID 2408, use following command

kill -9 2408