.TH KILL 1 
.SH NAME
kill \- terminate a process with extreme prejudice
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B kill
[
.BR \- sig
]
processid ...
.br
.B kill
.B \-l
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I kill
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
terminate
(see
.IR  signal (2)).
The signal names are listed by
`kill \-l', and are as given in
.I /usr/include/signal.h,
stripped of the common SIG prefix.
.PP
The terminate signal will kill processes that do not catch the signal;
`kill \-9 ...' is a sure kill, as the KILL signal (signal 9) 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.
The killed processes must belong
to the current user unless
he is the super-user.
.PP
To shut the system down and bring it up single user
the super-user may send the initialization process a TERM (terminate)
signal by `kill 1'; see
.IR init (8).
To force
.I init
to close and open terminals
according to what is currently in
/etc/ttys
use `kill \-1 1' (sending a hangup, signal 1).
.PP
The process number of an asynchronous process
started with `&' is reported by the shell and by
.IR ps (1).
.SH "SEE ALSO"
ps(1), kill(2), signal(2)