skill (1) - Linux Manuals

skill: send a signal or report process status

NAME

skill, snice - send a signal or report process status

SYNOPSIS

skill [signal] [options] expression
snice [new priority] [options] expression

DESCRIPTION

These tools are obsolete and unportable. The command syntax is poorly defined. Consider using the killall, pkill, and pgrep commands instead.

The default signal for skill is TERM. Use -l or -L to list available signals. Particularly useful signals include HUP, INT, KILL, STOP, CONT, and 0. Alternate signals may be specified in three ways: -9 -SIGKILL -KILL.

The default priority for snice is +4. Priority numbers range from +20 (slowest) to -20 (fastest). Negative priority numbers are restricted to administrative users.

OPTIONS

-f, --fast

Fast mode. This option has not been implemented.

-i, --interactive

Interactive use. You will be asked to approve each action.

-l, --list

List all signal names.

-L, --table

List all signal names in a nice table.

-n, --no-action

No action; perform a simulation of events that would occur but do not actually change the system.

-v, --verbose

Verbose; explain what is being done.

-w, --warnings

Enable warnings. This option has not been implemented.

-h, --help

Display help text and exit.

-V, --version

Display version information.

PROCESS SELECTION OPTIONS

Selection criteria can be: terminal, user, pid, command. The options below may be used to ensure correct interpretation.

-t, --tty tty

The next expression is a terminal (tty or pty).

-u, --user user

The next expression is a username.

-p, --pid pid

The next expression is a process ID number.

-c, --command command

The next expression is a command name.

--ns pid

Match the processes that belong to the same namespace as pid.

--nslist ns/,,.../

list which namespaces will be considered for the --ns option. Available namespaces: ipc, mnt, net, pid, user, uts.

SIGNALS

The behavior of signals is explained in signal(7) manual page.

EXAMPLES

snice -c seti -c crack +7

Slow down seti and crack commands.

skill -KILL -t /dev/pts/*

Kill users on PTY devices.

skill -STOP -u viro -u lm -u davem

Stop three users.

STANDARDS

No standards apply.

AUTHOR

Albert Cahalan wrote skill and snice in 1999 as a replacement for a non-free version.

REPORTING BUGS

Please send bug reports to