Open System Services Shell and Utilities Reference Manual (G06.25+, H06.03+)
Table Of Contents
kill(1) OSS Shell and Utilities Reference Manual
NAME
kill - Sends a signal to a running process
SYNOPSIS
kill -l [exit_status]
kill -s signal_name process_ID ...
Obsolescent Versions
kill -s -signal_name | -signal_number process_ID ...
The kill command sends a signal to one or more running processes.
FLAGS
-l [exit_status]
Lists all supported signal names. If the exit_status argument is specified and it is a
value corresponding to an OSS process terminated by a signal, the name of the signal
that terminated the OSS process is listed.
-s signal_name
Specifies the signal to send, using one of the symbolic names defined for required sig-
nals or job control signals. Values of signal_name are recognized in both uppercase
and lowercase letters and with or without the prefix SIG. The symbolic name 0 (zero),
which represents the value 0 (zero), is also recognized. The corresponding signal is
sent instead of the SIGTERM signal.
-signal_name
Equivalent to -s signal_name. (Obsolescent.)
-signal_number
Specifies a nonnegative decimal integer representing the signal to be used instead of
the SIGTERM signal as the sig argument in the call to the kill command for OSS pro-
cess IDs. (Obsolescent.)
The effects of specifying any signal number other than those listed by the command kill -l is
unknown. In the obsolescent versions, if the first argument is a negative integer, it is interpreted
as an option to -signal_number, not as a negative process_ID operand specifying a process
group.
DESCRIPTION
The kill command sends a signal to one or more running processes, specified by each process_ID
argument.
The OSS shell contains a built-in command named kill that functions in the same way as the reg-
ular OSS command named kill, except that a new shell process is started for each execution of
the regular form of kill. The shell built-in version is the default. Both the regular form and the
shell built-in form of the kill command are described in this reference page.
Specify OSS processes to be signaled by giving their process identification number as the
process_ID argument.
Specify the signal to be sent with the -s signal_name argument, the -signal_name option, or the
-signal_number option.
If neither the -s signal_name argument, the -signal_name option, nor the -signal_number option
is specified, the SIGTERM signal is sent by default.
All numeric signal specifications except 0 (zero) are obsolescent.
The shell reports the PID of each process running in the background (unless you start more than
one process in a pipeline, in which case the shell reports the number of the last process). You can
5−2 Hewlett-Packard Company 527188-003