Name

kill — send signal to a process

Synopsis

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <signal.h>
int kill( pid_t   pid,
  int   sig);
[Note] Note
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
kill():
_POSIX_C_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

The kill() system call can be used to send any signal to any process group or process.

If pid is positive, then signal sig is sent to pid.

If pid equals 0, then sig is sent to every process in the process group of the calling process.

If pid equals −1, then sig is sent to every process for which the calling process has permission to send signals, except for process 1 (init), but see below.

If pid is less than −1, then sig is sent to every process in the process group −pid.

If sig is 0, then no signal is sent, but error checking is still performed.

For a process to have permission to send a signal it must either be privileged (under Linux: have the CAP_KILL capability), or the real or effective user ID of the sending process must equal the real or saved set-user-ID of the target process. In the case of SIGCONT it suffices when the sending and receiving processes belong to the same session.

RETURN VALUE

On success (at least one signal was sent), zero is returned. On error, −1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS

EINVAL

An invalid signal was specified.

EPERM

The process does not have permission to send the signal to any of the target processes.

ESRCH

The pid or process group does not exist. Note that an existing process might be a zombie, a process which already committed termination, but has not yet been wait(2)ed for.

CONFORMING TO

SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001

NOTES

The only signals that can be sent to process ID 1, the init process, are those for which init has explicitly installed signal handlers. This is done to assure the system is not brought down accidentally.

POSIX.1-2001 requires that kill(−1,sig) send sig to all processes that the calling process may send signals to, except possibly for some implementation-defined system processes. Linux allows a process to signal itself, but on Linux the call kill(−1,sig) does not signal the calling process.

POSIX.1-2001 requires that if a process sends a signal to itself, and the sending thread does not have the signal blocked, and no other thread has it unblocked or is waiting for it in sigwait(3), at least one unblocked signal must be delivered to the sending thread before the kill().

Linux Notes

Across different kernel versions, Linux has enforced different rules for the permissions required for an unprivileged process to send a signal to another process. In kernels 1.0 to 1.2.2, a signal could be sent if the effective user ID of the sender matched that of the receiver, or the real user ID of the sender matched that of the receiver. From kernel 1.2.3 until 1.3.77, a signal could be sent if the effective user ID of the sender matched either the real or effective user ID of the receiver. The current rules, which conform to POSIX.1-2001, were adopted in kernel 1.3.78.

BUGS

In 2.6 kernels up to and including 2.6.7, there was a bug that meant that when sending signals to a process group, kill() failed with the error EPERM if the caller did have permission to send the signal to any (rather than all) of the members of the process group. Notwithstanding this error return, the signal was still delivered to all of the processes for which the caller had permission to signal.

SEE ALSO

_exit(2), killpg(2), signal(2), sigqueue(2), tkill(2), exit(3), capabilities(7), credentials(7), signal(7)

COLOPHON

This page is part of release 2.79 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.


Copyright (c) 1992 Drew Eckhardt (drewcs.colorado.edu), March 28, 1992

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
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permission notice identical to this one.

Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this
manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date.  The author(s) assume no
responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from
the use of the information contained herein.  The author(s) may not
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which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working
professionally.

Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by
the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work.

Modified by Michael Haardt <michaelmoria.de>
Modified by Thomas Koenig <ig25rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>
Modified 1993-07-23 by Rik Faith <faithcs.unc.edu>
Modified 1993-07-25 by Rik Faith <faithcs.unc.edu>
Modified 1995-11-01 by Michael Haardt
 <michaelcantor.informatik.rwth-aachen.de>
Modified 1996-04-14 by Andries Brouwer <aebcwi.nl>
 [added some polishing contributed by Mike Battersby <mibdeakin.edu.au>]
Modified 1996-07-21 by Andries Brouwer <aebcwi.nl>
Modified 1997-01-17 by Andries Brouwer <aebcwi.nl>
Modified 2001-12-18 by Andries Brouwer <aebcwi.nl>
Modified 2002-07-24 by Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpagesgmail.com>
Added note on historical rules enforced when an unprivileged process
sends a signal.
Modified 2004-06-16 by Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpagesgmail.com>
    Added note on CAP_KILL
Modified 2004-06-24 by aeb
Modified, 2004-11-30, after idea from emmanuel.colbusensimag.imag.fr