The kill command
The kill
command is a fundamental and powerful utility in Linux used to terminate or send signals to running processes. In many cases, it requires superuser (sudo
) privileges to terminate processes that belong to other users or are critical to system operation. Its primary purpose is to gracefully stop or forcibly terminate processes based on their PIDs. The kill
command allows system administrators to manage and control the execution of processes, ensuring smooth system operation and resource management. One of the most common signals sent by the kill
command is SIGTERM
(signal 15), which politely asks a process to terminate, giving it a chance to perform cleanup tasks before exiting. Additionally, the kill
command can send other signals such as SIGKILL
(signal 9), which forcefully terminates a process without allowing it to perform any cleanup. This is useful in cases where a process is unresponsive or causing system instability. The kill
command is crucial for handling...