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<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ANSI_X3.4-1968"><title>kill</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="docbook.css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot"><link rel="home" href="cygwin-ug-net.html" title="Cygwin User's Guide"><link rel="up" href="using-utils.html" title="Cygwin Utilities"><link rel="prev" href="gmondump.html" title="gmondump"><link rel="next" href="ldd.html" title="ldd"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">kill</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="gmondump.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Cygwin Utilities</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="ldd.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="refentry"><a name="kill"></a><div class="titlepage"></div><div class="refnamediv"><h2>Name</h2><p>kill — Send signals to processes</p></div><div class="refsynopsisdiv"><h2>Synopsis</h2><div class="cmdsynopsis"><p><code class="command">kill</code> [-f] [-signal] [-s <em class="replaceable"><code>signal</code></em>] <em class="replaceable"><code>pid</code></em>... </p></div><div class="cmdsynopsis"><p><code class="command">kill</code> -l [<em class="replaceable"><code>signal</code></em>]</p></div><div class="cmdsynopsis"><p><code class="command">kill</code> -h | -V </p></div></div><div class="refsect1"><a name="kill-options"></a><h2>Options</h2><pre class="screen">
-f, --force force, using win32 interface if necessary
-l, --list print a list of signal names
-s, --signal send signal (use kill --list for a list)
-W, --winpid specified pids are windows PIDs, not Cygwin PIDs
(use with extreme caution!)
-h, --help output usage information and exit
-V, --version output version information and exit
</pre></div><div class="refsect1"><a name="kill-desc"></a><h2>Description</h2><p>The <span class="command"><strong>kill</strong></span> program allows you to send arbitrary
signals to other Cygwin programs. The usual purpose is to end a running
program from some other window when ^C won't work, but you can also send
program-specified signals such as SIGUSR1 to trigger actions within the
program, like enabling debugging or re-opening log files. Each program
defines the signals they understand.</p><p>You may need to specify the full path to use <span class="command"><strong>kill</strong></span>
from within some shells, including <span class="command"><strong>bash</strong></span>, the default
Cygwin shell. This is because <span class="command"><strong>bash</strong></span> defines a
<span class="command"><strong>kill</strong></span> builtin function; see the <span class="command"><strong>bash</strong></span>
man page under <span class="emphasis"><em>BUILTIN COMMANDS</em></span> for more
information. To make sure you are using the Cygwin version, try
</p><pre class="screen">
$ /bin/kill --version
</pre><p> which should give the Cygwin
<span class="command"><strong>kill</strong></span> version number and copyright information. </p><p>The <code class="literal">-f</code> option uses Windows functions to
terminate processes forcefully. Use <code class="literal">-f</code> to
terminate native Windows processes not started by Cygwin processes.
<code class="literal">-f</code> can also be useful to terminate Cygwin processes
not answering to SIGKILL.</p><p>Unless you specific the <code class="literal">-W</code> option, the "pid"
values used by <span class="command"><strong>kill</strong></span> are the Cygwin pids, not the
Windows pids. To get a list of running programs and their Cygwin pids,
use the Cygwin <span class="command"><strong>ps</strong></span> program. <span class="command"><strong>ps -W</strong></span>
will display <span class="emphasis"><em>all</em></span> windows pids.</p><p>The <span class="command"><strong>kill -l</strong></span> option prints the name of the given
signal, or a list of all signal names if no signal is given.</p><p>To send a specific signal, use the <code class="literal">-signN</code> option,
either with a signal number or a signal name (minus the "SIG" part), as
shown in these examples:</p><div class="example"><a name="utils-kill-ex"></a><p class="title"><b>Example 3.6. Using the kill command</b></p><div class="example-contents"><pre class="screen">
<code class="prompt">$</code> <strong class="userinput"><code>kill 123</code></strong>
<code class="prompt">$</code> <strong class="userinput"><code>kill -1 123</code></strong>
<code class="prompt">$</code> <strong class="userinput"><code>kill -HUP 123</code></strong>
<code class="prompt">$</code> <strong class="userinput"><code>kill -f 123</code></strong>
</pre></div></div><br class="example-break"><p>Here is a list of available signals, their numbers, and some
commentary on them, from the file
<code class="literal"><sys/signal.h></code>, which should be considered the
official source of this information.</p><pre class="screen">
SIGHUP 1 hangup
SIGINT 2 interrupt
SIGQUIT 3 quit
SIGILL 4 illegal instruction (not reset when caught)
SIGTRAP 5 trace trap (not reset when caught)
SIGABRT 6 used by abort
SIGIOT 6 another name for SIGABRT
SIGEMT 7 EMT instruction
SIGFPE 8 floating point exception
SIGKILL 9 kill (cannot be caught or ignored)
SIGBUS 10 bus error
SIGSEGV 11 segmentation violation
SIGSYS 12 bad argument to system call
SIGPIPE 13 write on a pipe with no one to read it
SIGALRM 14 alarm clock
SIGTERM 15 software termination signal from kill
SIGURG 16 urgent condition on IO channel
SIGSTOP 17 sendable stop signal not from tty
SIGTSTP 18 stop signal from tty
SIGCONT 19 continue a stopped process
SIGCHLD 20 to parent on child stop or exit
SIGCLD 20 System V name for SIGCHLD
SIGTTIN 21 to readers pgrp upon background tty read
SIGTTOU 22 like TTIN for output if (tp->t_local&LTOSTOP)
SIGIO 23 input/output possible
SIGPOLL 23 System V name for SIGIO
SIGXCPU 24 exceeded CPU time limit
SIGXFSZ 25 exceeded file size limit
SIGVTALRM 26 virtual time alarm
SIGPROF 27 profiling time alarm
SIGWINCH 28 window changed
SIGLOST 29 resource lost (eg, record-lock lost)
SIGPWR 29 power failure
SIGUSR1 30 user defined signal 1
SIGUSR2 31 user defined signal 2
</pre></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="gmondump.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="using-utils.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="ldd.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">gmondump </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="cygwin-ug-net.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> ldd</td></tr></table></div></body></html>