kill

Use

kill 12345
kill -TERM 12345
kill -KILL 12345

What It Does

kill sends a signal to a process id. The default signal is TERM, which asks a process to stop cleanly.

Practice

Use ps first so you know the exact process id and owner.

ps -u "$USER" -o pid,comm,args
kill -TERM 12345

Watch Out

Never guess process ids. KILL is a last resort because the process cannot clean up.

Docs Pointers

• Run man kill.
• Read signals, processes, process basics, and killall.